Out of The Woods
by ValleyToHell
Summary: Aurora was something special, but with some horrible turn of events; it's found out that she may be the person to end the apocalypse. Read her story as she escapes from torturous men, finds Hershel and his group; becomes part of the groups family and falls in love with someone very unlikely. Starts at the end of Season 2 and so on... OC/Daryl
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1.**

I tried to stay quiet as I ran, pushing through branches and wincing as the wood would scratch over my skin. Three of them were behind me, a herd of 10 or so walkers following us. One of the men had pulled the trigger of his gun and when that shot rang out all of the walkers around in the surrounding area came together. I tripped over an uprooted branch and fell onto my outstretched hands, cutting my palms into the dirt and gravel below as I scrambled to a large tree and pressed my back against it, trying to catch my breath.

"Girl you can't run forever, not in these woods!" One of the men called out, his northern accent ringing in my thudding ears. They were whispering to each other now, things I couldn't pick up and I put my hand to my mouth to calm my breathing. "Bitch just give it up and come back to the camp!" I closed my eyes tight and pushed myself up to stand against the tree, out of sight from the men who were chasing me. When their guns started going off again, I knew the walkers were close. I bolted from my spot. "There she is, go after her and bring her back!" Dave yelled and I just continued running, hopping over fallen braches that I could see and trying not to stumble and fall. A shot rang past my head and I turned left, running as fast as I could.

"Aurora stop running god dammit!" he yelled behind me and I stopped, noticing the voice of who was chasing me this time. I turned and stayed behind another large tree trunk and he jogged up, putting his hands up, one with a gun, the other palm facing out to show he wasn't going to hurt me. "I'm not gonna hurt you, the guys, they ain't going to hurt you, so just come back to the camp and we'll forget this happened alright?"

"They're going to kill me, I saw them… Tony he… he killed-"

"He didn't do it, you know Izzy was sick, she didn't have a lot of time left, Tony was just doing what your sister wanted"

"She didn't want to die!" I cried out at him, coming from behind the tree now "She never wanted to die, you, your men made her sick" He pointed the gun at me now and I took in a deep, quick breath as I stared at him. "Please" I whispered "Just let me go!"

"You won't survive out there in these woods" He walked towards me slowly and grabbed my arm in his grip.

"Just tell them you shot me, that I put up a fight and you got mad and you shot me, they'll believe you, they don't need me!"

He pulled me along with him as I stumbled and fell onto my hands again and I grabbed the closest rock and pulled it into my chest. "Get up" He pressed the barrel of his gun against the back of my head as I slowly pushed myself to stand. He grabbed my arm again, his fingers digging into my skin.

"Please, I'm no use"

"Stop it now girl" He muttered and I sighed deeply while we continued to walk, "Now where'd those sons of bitches go?" He asked himself as I took the opportunity of him scanning his eyes around the dim lit woods to throw my other arm up and the rock connected with his nose and he cried out as he dropped the gun and I quickly pulled it up and fumbled around with it until both of my hands were on it, pointing it at him while his nose bled profusely.

"Don't come near me or I'll shoot you, I swear on it"

"You bitch, don't you ever listen?" He yelled at me as he took a step towards me and I pulled the trigger and it hit through his cheek and he fell back onto the dirt below. I looked at the gun in my trembling hands and then back at him. I heard the yelling again and I looked through the trees and held onto the gun as I turned and ran again. These woods had to end somewhere and with a weapon, my chances of survival were growing by the minute.

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><p>Swallowing hard, I looked around at my surroundings. I was dying for some water right now and yet I couldn't find any liquid's in any of these abandoned stores. I ran all night long until finally my feet fell onto pavement and I walked alongside a road for about an hour and here I was, in the back of a once small clothing shop, huddled under a large jacket as a blanket. I swallowed again as I pulled myself up to stand, looking every which way to make sure there was no one around and then I hopped over the counter and pushed the gun into the back waistband of my jeans. I found a medium black v neck t shirt and pulled off my blood and holey white shirt and then pulled the black one on and looked down at my jeans, they weren't too bad. So I ventured off in the day light, while keeping myself close to the brick walls of the shops and stores in the small town. I found two bars, one names Steve's but they didn't even have a lick of alcohol left and then the next Hat-Lands but once I pushed the door open my hand reached for my gun as I pointed it at the man sitting at the bar. He turned his head; he had to have been in his 60's from all of the white hair he was supporting.<p>

"Look I don't want trouble, I just need water" I told him as I took a few more steps towards the bar.

"Fresh out of water but plenty of alcohol" He said as he turned back around to his own glass and bottle in front of him. I lowered my gun but kept it by my side as I walked behind the bar and shuffled through some bottles, looking for something that didn't have a lot of alcohol content and found a bottle of cheap vodka and put my gun down on the counter in front of me as I unscrewed the top and took a long swing and sputtered and coughed it up at the burn in the back of my throat. He glanced over at me again. "You need something smoother than that, try this" He held up the bottle that he was drinking from and I grabbed my gun and slowly walked over, checking that he didn't have anyone with him.

"Are you here alone?"

"What does it look like sweetheart?" He asked and I nodded once as he slid the bottle over to me and I grabbed a half clean glass and poured some and put the bottle back down on the counter top. I took a small sip and it tasted like honey. I sighed deeply and took another small sip. "You don't need the gun, do you think an old man like me is going to have the jump on you?" I shrugged

"You can never be too careful these days" I said to him, taking another sip as he poured more for himself and then tipped the bottle into my glass. "Why are you here alone? It doesn't look like you have a camp around here" I mentioned, he looked over at me again, this time he kept his eyes on me.

"My god you can't be more than 20" He said and I felt uncomfortable under his gaze now.

"Does it matter? I asked you a question" I said

"I have a group, a camp as what you called it but it's not around here, on the outskirts of town" I nodded, finishing off my glass. Wow that alcohol got to you quick on an empty stomach "How about yourself?"

"I was in a group, I got out of it though, been on my own since last night" He nodded as I pushed back the blonde hair behind my left ear. Then the front doors pushed open again and I ducked before who ever came in could see me.

"Who's with you?" Said the old man.

"Glenn" Said the other. They knew each other. I kept my back pressed against the back of the bar, gun in my hands. They spoke for a few minutes as I stayed quiet. "Someone with you?" The same man asked as he grabbed my half empty glass and inspected it.

"No, just myself and my thoughts" The old man said and I let out a quiet breath. That was until I heard footsteps coming around the side opening of the bar and I slowly crawled away to the other side but slipped on a downturned bottle and it went scattering the other way. "Who's there?" I pushed the gun into the back of my jeans and swallowed hard and stood up slowly. "Thought you said no one else was in here, who are you?" The man asked as he pressed his hand to the gun on his hip. I looked over at the old man and then at the Asian and then back at the 30 something year old man talking to me.

"I wasn't intruding, I was just having a drink with him and then you two showed up, I don't want any trouble"

"Who are you?" He asked again and I blinked a few times.

"Aurora" I told him and he nodded

"Where'd you come from Aurora?"

"I was in a group, I um-"The double doors opened again.

"Son of a bitch, we thought you guys were dead" My breathing started to go shallow as the two men stepped inside and Dave's eyes fell onto me and he smiled gently "Aurora, now I know where you ran off to, stocking up on the alcohol are you?"

"You two know each other?" The man asked as he looked back and forth from all of us and I was about to say something but he walked over to me and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me into his side and he kissed the side of my face.

"Sorry guys, she sort of gets lost sometimes… sorry I didn't introduce myself I'm Dave, that's Tony over there and this here is my wife" He brushed his lips towards my cheek again and whispered "Don't do anything stupid." He smiled back at the guys and left my side, pulling the gun from my waistband and into his. "Why don't you grab what you need and we're going to have a talk with the guys, alright gorgeous?" He said and I nodded slowly as he walked away from me. If I ran all three of those men were going to be dead before they could even blink. I took in a deep breath and grabbed an alcohol bottle and with my shaking hands, I dropped it as it crashed down onto the floor and shattered, Dave looked over at me, his face getting angry.

"Sorry, clumsy hands" I dropped down onto my knees and pressed myself up against the wall again, taking in deep breaths as the 5 of them spoke to one another. Dave trying to get information out of the guy named Rick but he wasn't having it. When I didn't move for about 2 minutes Dave hopped over the bar top and looked down at me, putting his gun down on the top to make sure Rick knew he wasn't going to draw on him. But then everything went so quick, Dave grabbed his gun and then the shot rang out and he dropped down in front of me and I covered my mouth from screaming. Then three more shots rang out.

"Stand up" Rick said and then he hit the top of the bar top and I jumped a bit and stood up facing them "Hands show us your hands" I put my hands up, palms facing them.

"I'm not armed" I whispered out, staring down at Dave "You actually killed him " I whispered again and took in a deep breath.

"What was that?" He asked

"You killed them, I've been trying to get away from them for months" I choked on my breath, feeling the hot tears come to my eyes.

"You two… you aren't married?" I shook my head and looked at Rick now. "But you were a part of their group"

"I was… forced, my sister and I we were taken" I blinked a few times

"Where is she?" Glenn asked and I looked over at him

"Dead, she died a few days ago" His face showed remorse "Can I put my hands down? I'm not going to do anything"

When Rick didn't answer me but put his gun back into his holster, Hershel spoke up "Rick, she's a young girl who's been through a great deal of turmoil, obviously being a hostage to these men"

"Yeah put your hands down, and slowly come over this way. As you can see we don't trust people we don't know, and I'm going to take Hershel's word that you're not going to do anything" I pulled myself up on the bar and hopped down as he pulled at Tony's belt and I raised my eyebrows.

"Can you um, check his left pocket" I asked, wincing a bit when he turned his eyes on me in annoyance. He pushed his hand into the pocket and pulled out a gold necklace with a rose pendant on it.

"This yours?" He asked

"It was my sisters, can I have it?" He pushed the necklace into his front pocket and I sighed while he walked towards me.

"Arms out" I put my arms out and he wrapped the belt around the wrists, bounding them together. "You'll get those off of you when I can trust you" I nodded and dropped my arms down once he was done and I put my hands together.

"Dave and Tony… they probably weren't alone you know? So if you were thinking of getting out of here then you should probably-"

"SHH" He said as sounds of men from outside started to be heard inside of the bar. "Get down, and if you say one word you're dead" I nodded and slid down onto my ass against the wall. I didn't like Rick one bit. The men stayed by the front doors with their guns drawn.

"Wrong place wrong time!" Rick shouted again and I put my forehead down against my knees that were hugging my chest. From the sound of it, Henry and Shawn were out there as well as Randall. Then the gunshots from the other side started and Rick yelled to get out from the doors and he ran and grabbed me by my arm and pulled me up and dragged me with him to a wall and he put a hand to my mouth and looked down into my eyes and gave me a pointed look. I wasn't going to say anything anyways, but I understood in a way of why he was doing this. "Do you know these men?" He whispered to me and pulled his hand away from my mouth slowly.

"Yes" I whispered back.

"What do they want?"

I looked over to Tony's body "Their friends" I told him honestly "Maybe I can reason with them?" I asked and he shook his head and put his hand back on my mouth.

"Do they know you're in here?" He asked and I shook my head as he nodded once "Stay quiet and if I tell you to do something, do it" I nodded and he pulled his hand away from my mouth again as he started to load his gun back up. He took a few steps towards Hershel, against the wall and talked about getting a way out of here, by going out the back way to make a run for their car. "Take her, tell Glenn to bring her to the car and pull it around" Hershel didn't lay a finger on me, just gave me a look as we walked slowly to the back of the bar and Glenn welcomed us with a shotgun in the face. Then he lowered it as Hershel told him the plan. Glenn grabbed my arm a little softer than Rick did and pulled me to the back door.

"The cars around the block, can you run?"

"I've been running for months" I whispered to him and he looked over at me and then nodded as he let my arm go.

"Follow my lead, don't do anything stupid, I don't want to die tonight" I half smiled and then nodded as he counted down from 3 and then we booked it out of the back door as gunshots started to ring out from behind us and Glenn pushed me to the side behind a garbage container and I hit my back against the fence a little too hard. He stayed with his back against the green container, his shot gun in his clutched hands. He looked terrified.

"Are you okay?" I whispered and he didn't look over at me. I took in a deep breath as I struggled with the belt around my wrists and finally got free from it and put my hand on his arm and he looked over at me. "Are you okay? Are you shot?" He shook his head as Rick came over to us and looked over at me and then back at Glenn and asked him a few questions to make sure he was alright before a white truck came into view from the street and then a lot of screaming.

"Get Hershel" Rick said to Glenn as he picked up the belt from the ground by my feet and grabbed my hands "Do all of your friends shoot at people?" He asked annoyed, wrapping my wrists tighter this time with the belt, the leather cutting into my skin as I bit down on my bottom lip. "Get up" He said and grabbed my underarm and picked me up to my feet and we walked to the street as Glenn and Hershel started to shoot some of the Roamers that were around the area from the gunshots.

"Who is that?" He asked me as we walked over to the man lying down, his calf through a spiked fence post and I nearly gagged at the sight. He lifted himself up and begged for our help.

"Randall" I whispered, awful images started to flash through my head of him.

"Oh god please help me, Aurora help me please" He begged and Hershel came jogging over as Rick let my arm go so the three of them could argue about if they wanted Randall to come or not, how they were going to get him off of the post. Rick looked over at me and then back at Glenn.

"Put her in the car, lock the doors" Glenn took me by the arm and walked me across the street to the car and pushed me into the back seat and he shut the doors, not locking them. I wasn't going anywhere though, I couldn't. Not with so many roamers out there and I was unarmed. He started to shoot at the dead outside of the car and then the next thing I see is that they are carrying Randall to the car and they dropped him in the backseat next to me and I scooted far away from him. He was passed out, probably from the pain and Glenn hopped in beside him, wrapping a white cloth around his eyes and then another around his leg where the wound was and then we started to drive. I didn't like being this close to him. Then Rick caught my eyes in the rear view mirror "Glenn, put something over her eyes" I opened my lips

"I'm not going to-"I whispered but I heard the ripping of a shirt and Glenn looked at me a little sympathetic and I nodded as he wrapped it around my head to cover my eyes. It was dark. I didn't like the dark. We drove for about 9 miles and that's when I started to fall asleep against the window.

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><p><strong>Please review! <strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

"Up, get up" I heard as someone grabbed my arm and I instantly shot awake, opening my eyes but couldn't see anything but brightness under the white cloth over my eyes still. "Take a step" He said and I took one and stumbled out of the back of the truck and he caught me.

"Where am I?" I whispered

"Don't matter" he said as his fingers dug into my upper arm as we walked and then I heard something like a wooden door opening and then I was shoved inside. "You're staying in here until Randall is healed up and then we're going to send you two on your merry little way" He pulled the blindfold off and then started on the belt around my wrists.

I looked up at him and nodded, looking over his features to find that he was a black man, roughly mid-thirties but before I could say anything he was pushing against my shoulder gently to sit.

"Sit down, against the wall there, put your hands behind your back" I sat down and did what he said and then he pulled out the handcuffs and I closed my eyes tight as he put them in place around my wrists, feeling the cool of the steel against my cut wrists just made it all worse.

It was 4 hours later before someone came in again after the black man left; it was a blonde woman who had water. She gave me about half and then left without saying one word to me, but I thanked her.

It was dark when Rick came in and he woke me up from sleeping. He was crouched down in front of me, looking me over as I blinked my eyes open, trying to adjust them. "I'm going to ask you a few questions, answer them honestly and I'll get those handcuffs off of you, and maybe some food? You look like you haven't eaten in days" I nodded slowly, swallowing a bit "How do you know Randall?"

I took in a deep breath "He was part of the group I was with" He nodded, accepting that answer.

"Hershel told me that you were getting away from your camp, you said something about escaping from them. Were you a prisoner of theirs?" He asked and I looked down and nodded

"My sister and I, it was a few months back, during the winter" I whispered, trying to keep my breathing normal.

"Your sister, she's dead?" I nodded "How did that happen?" His rough southern voice showing sympathy now.

"She was sick for a few weeks, but… Tony, the fat one that you killed, I heard him with her the night she died, I swear to it that he killed her"

"You and your sister, you weren't together?" I shook my head.

"I was in a shed…" I looked around briefly before my eyes landed back on his clean face "It was like this but it was a lot smaller, we both were, I had blankets, I saw the outside maybe 4 times."

"The group you were in, how many were there?" He asked and I shrugged.

"I don't know, there were a lot of men sometimes but then… it would be real quiet at night. I think they put us in the woods somewhere, away from their camp… when I got out a few nights ago it was all woods around me" He moved around to the side of me and I stilled, my breathing stopping.

"I'm not going to hurt you" He said honestly as he pulled his keys out from his belt loop and uncuffed my wrist. Once both were free I pulled them back in front of me slowly, trying to be careful of the flesh wounds around them. "Where are you from?"

"Chicago" I whispered "My dad, my brother, and my sister, we were down here for a vacation to see my grandparents in Atlanta when the outbreak started…"

He nodded slowly, pushing the handcuffs into the holster of his belt buckle; it looked like something a police officer had, when there was a law. My dad was a cop, 23 years on the job, that's how I remembered it from. "You have a brother?"

I looked down now and shrugged "I don't know where he is, he was in Atlanta when they dropped the bombs… so we just all assumed that he died." Rick shuffled back a bit away from me and nodded, clipping the cuffs back onto his belt.

"How old are you anyways?"

"24" I took in a deep breath "At least I think I am, if it's past May 5th then yeah I'm 24" He nodded again.

"You're 24" He said and I nodded slowly as I pulled my black t shirt down a bit over the section of white skin on my stomach and then brushed my fingers back over my blonde, white curling hair. "I don't want to keep you in here, but I don't-"

"Trust me?" I asked him and he nodded as he stood up "It's okay, I don't trust anyone either."

He left me in there, giving me a blanket and a half pillow and then some food in which I devoured in seconds. He promised that tomorrow I would see the sun and then left for the night.

It was late when I heard the door to the shed opening up and I pulled the blanket tighter around me.

"Ya know the shed's unlocked right?" Said a gruff southern voice, one I hadn't heard before. "Ricks stupid lettin' ya stay in here" He muttered as he closed the door behind him, keeping it dark in the shed, nothing but the moonlight shining from a large hole in the ceiling. I could somewhat see his face as he walked to the side and he put his back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked me over. "Why ain't you leaving if the shed's unlocked for ya?"

"I don't have anywhere else to go" I whispered and he paused, taken back by my answer or my voice, I wasn't sure which one until he slid his body down across from me, pulling a leg up with the other nearly touching my own legs.

"What do ya know about the group you came from?" He asked

"I already told Rick"

"Well tell me, I ain't Rick" I pulled myself up to sit against the wall, wrapping my arms around my legs as I pulled them to my chest again like I usually did.

"My sister and I, we were held up in two sheds in the woods somewhere, miles out from the town I was in when I stumbled upon Hershel, right? That's his name?" He didn't answer so I continued "I only heard about 10 different male voices, only saw about 7 of them over the months I was there."

"Only 10?" He asked "You sure?"

"Yes" I whispered "I remembered by their voices, it was 10" He nodded, taking my answer as the truth.

"Where's your sister?" He asked

"Dead" I whispered and he paused again, looking down and back over at me.

"How? Walker?" He asked and I shook my head.

"She was sick, got some sort of flu or something, I could tell by the way she coughed at night, but I think Tony killed her…" He nodded slowly.

"What about you? How'd you get out?"

I parted my lips a bit and then closed them, shaking my head at his question, telling him I wasn't going to answer it.

"Anyone else with you when that group found you two?" He asked, skipping the question he previously asked me.

"My dad" I whispered

"Where is he at?"

"Dead, they shot him for trying to protect my sister and I" He nodded and I saw his jaw tighten a bit as he then stood up from the ground and brushed off his pants.

"Doors still unlocked, you can leave whenever ya want" He said as he opened and then closed the door. That was all my visitors for the night.

"I'm Lori, Rick's wife" The woman said as she walked in front of me as we left the shed the next morning and I wrapped my arms around myself as we walked. It was bright, and my eyes weren't adjusting.

"Aurora" I whispered

"Pretty name" She said as we walked over to a camp fire and there was a pale of water there and a dish rag. "You can clean yourself up if you'd want, people will probably warm up to you once they can see your face" She mentioned and I put my hand up to the side of my face.

"Is it that bad?" I asked, my fingernail picking at dried dirt against my temple.

"You're covered in mud sweetheart, here… can I?" She asked as she grabbed the rag and I licked over my bottom lip and then nodded. "You can take a seat if you want" I hesitantly sat down on the overturned log and put my hands on my thighs as she put water on the rag and rung it out into the pale and sat down next to me as I turned my face and she started to wash the mud away as gently as possible. "So where are you from?"

"Chicago" I whispered, opening my eyes once she washed over them "You?"

"A little town in Kentucky" She said as she washed over my other cheek, her eyes narrowing a bit once she looked over my clean face and then she got more water on the rag as she started on my neck. "You ever been?" I shook my head.

"I'm sure Rick's told you everything about me…" I muttered and she nodded after a second.

"Yeah" She half smiled "So let me tell you something about me… My son is 10, he's right over there" She pointed behind me and I looked at the small boy with a sheriff's hat on and looked back at her.

"Sheriff?" I asked

"Rick… he was a Sheriff's Deputy before all of this happened" I nodded, so I was correct last night with my theory. "What did you do before all of this?" She asked as she wiped away the dirt on my arms.

"I was um, a photographer" I whispered and she looked me over "And sometimes I did some modeling in front of the camera, some commercials here and there…" I tried to say nonchalantly.

"I thought I recognized you" She said and I bit down on my bottom lip "Aurora Austin, your sister… she was Isabelle Austin right?" I nodded "I always wondered what happened to all of those people you'd see in the magazines or on television, if they were all huddled up in some "famous only" bunker"

"Money doesn't buy you anything in this world" If only it did, maybe my family wouldn't all be dead.

"I'm sorry about your sister" She whispered as she tossed the rag into the pale of water.

"Me too" I whispered and crossed my arms over my chest again.

"Lori!" We both heard her name being called from just outside of the large white house. It was Rick.

"I'll be back" I nodded and she got up and walked over to her husband and I took the rag and wiped the underside of my arms and the back of my neck.

"Finally decided to come out of hidin'" I heard as a man came over to me and I brought my eyebrows up in confusion. It was the man from last night. I looked him over now, his hands were beat up pretty bad, he was wearing a simple button down shirt, sleeves ripped off and he sat down with his crossbow and arrows. He looked me over and then back down to his arrows. "You didn't look like that last night, Lori pretty you all up?" I raised my eyebrows again at him.

"Wash cloth" I muttered, motioning with my eyes to the dirty rag on the pale's side. "What um, happened to your hands?" I asked.

"Does it matter?" He asked

"Guess not" I whispered and looked around the farm "Where's um, Randall?" I asked

"He ain't comin' out if that's what your askin'" He muttered at me a little rough "Plannin' on killin' him tonight" He said and then stood up and started to walk away. I blinked a few times.

"Wait" I called and stood up and jogged after him "You're killin' him? Tonight?" I asked

"That's what ya want right?" He asked me, turning to look at me.

"I- I didn't think… why would y'all save him if you were just going to kill him?" I asked

"That's what I asked Rick" He muttered as he started to walk again and I walked with him. "You followin' me now or something?"

"We were talking…" I said and stopped walking and he turned back around, looking at me again.

"Look, I don't like bein' followed, and I don't do this" He motioned between us

"Do what? Talk?" I asked and he rolled his eyes a bit.

"Feelin's" He muttered at me.

"I wasn't…" Then I caught on "Randall told you" I whispered, my eyes burning.

"Didn't go into details but he said enough" He looked me over again, and I could see the pity behind his eyes. I felt disgusted with myself.

"Is that why your knuckles are all beat up? Because he told you what his group of men did to my family? Did to me?" I swallowed hard and took in a deep breath to make my voice sound less hurt "Look, I don't want fucking sympathy, it's survival of the fittest now" I turned and started to walk away.

"You're gonna be a pain in the ass, aren't ya?"

"Leave me alone" I called back to him.

"I bet you ain't even killed a walker before" He said and I stopped and turned back around and looked at him

"No but I've killed" He kept his eyes on mine before he finally looked away.

"Aurora Austin" He muttered and I tensed my jaw a bit "Randall said you were some sort of special person, never thought we'd have some famous girl here"

That wasn't why I was special.

"What'd he tell you about me?" I asked him, walking towards him.

"Wasn't much to tell, told me you were special, so he kept you away from your sister" I swallowed hard.

"What else?" I asked him as his eyes flickered to my shirt and my eyes widened a bit. "He told you about it, didn't he?" I asked him, putting a hand over the right side of my ribs.

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><p><strong>Please review! <strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

"Didn't believe him until you just confirmed it, let me see it" He took a few steps forward, pushing his crossbow onto his back. I took a few steps back. "You lied to Rick about you only being out of that shed they kept you up in a few times"

"I had to" I whispered, biting my tongue from being honest.

"Let me see it"

"Why? All you people want shit from me when they see it, what? You gonna go tell Rick about me?" He looked at me and then shook his head.

"Walk with me"

"Didn't think you liked people following ya?" I asked and he shook his head and started walking anyway, towards the woods. I slowly started to walk after him until he got to an old broken off brick fireplace and he pulled his crossbow and arrows from his back and tossed them onto the brick.

"What happened? How'd you get it?" He asked, keeping his eyes off of me.

I bit down on my bottom lip while taking a deep breath and looking out at the woods before I answered him "It was the night Randall's group came to my camp… after, when they killed my dad, he turned"

"Was he bit?" He asked right away and I shook my head.

"Believe me we were all shocked. They thought it was funny, pushing me into my dad while he was just waking up… one of them, Dave said that they were going to wait until I turned into a walker and they were going to make me kill my own sister, but I didn't turn so they kept me"

"Let me see it" His voice was a little softer now, in a whisper almost and he looked over at me as I held onto the bottom of my black shirt, keeping it down in place while he brushed his hands off on his jeans. "I ain't gonna hurt you, do I look like I'm gonna hurt you?"

"Yes" I muttered and he shook his head as I pulled the side of my shirt up to just under my bust line. He slouched down a bit to get a closer look, ghosting his fingers over the teeth marked scars and then he touched it and pulled his fingers back.

"It's hot"

"I know" I whispered "Dave said that it was like my body fought off the disease that the fever is only in where the bite was. I don't understand it, no one did" He stood back up and I rolled my shirt back down. "I was some sort of prized possession of theirs, Dave called me his Queen of Roamers… sometimes I just thought I'd just die in there, finally become one of those things but it never happened"

"So your walker dad bit you and you survived… you are a prized possession" I cringed at his words, taking a step back "Don't worry I'm not gonna tell anyone, it's not important to me"

"Even if I'm a cure" I whispered and he raised his eyebrows.

"Didn't think of that…" I sighed deeply and rubbed my hand over the mark over my shirt. "Have you cured anyone?" He asked and I didn't answer "I'll take that as a yes"

"Dave… he got bit out on a run one of the nights, decided to test his theory" I held out my wrist "I didn't try and commit suicide if that's what you were thinking from this scar" He looked it over, the perfect straight line across my inner wrist.

"And it worked" I nodded "How'd they uh… use the blood?" He asked

"He had to drink it" I whispered, rubbing at my wrist "The um… abuse stopped after that" He looked me over again and I saw in his eyes flicker with anger, the sympathy was no longer there.

"How old are you?"

"24"

"You're a baby" He muttered and shook his head "I've seen you on those commercials, in those magazines"

I nodded "I figured once you knew my name" He half smiled and once I wrapped my arms around myself again, he leaned up and grabbed the red flannel hanging up a stuck out brick and tossed it to me. "Thanks" I whispered as I pulled it on over my cold arms.

It was silent for a few minutes so I sat down and brought my legs up on the bricks, wrapping my arms around my shins to pull my knees up under my chin.

"So you said you killed before" He muttered as he fiddled with a few of his arrows.

"When I was escaping, one of the guys caught up to me… I got his gun, shot him" He nodded

"How'd you get his gun? You can't weigh more than a buck"

"I got a rock, I think I broke his nose" He nodded

"Smart thinking" He muttered "So when you ran into Hershel, what happened there at the bar?"

"Rick killed Dave and Tony… Rick being the leader I take it, tied me up, kept me quiet, he took my sisters necklace, I should talk to him about getting that back" I whispered to myself.

"Rick took your sisters necklace?" He asked as he pushed arrows into different sockets and places.

"It was in Tony's pocket, she always wore it" He nodded and sat down, and I slid my legs down crossing them Indian style. We stayed silent for about 10 minutes, and I ended up lying down, looking up as the sky got darker.

"Where you sleepin' tonight?" He asked and I raised my eyebrows at the random question.

"The shed I guess"

"Take my tent" He said and I turned my head and looked over at him.

"I'm not taking your tent" I protested

"I don't sleep, just take it" He said a bit annoyed

"Is this because-"

"Of course it's because of that" I sighed, putting my head back down and closing my eyes.

"I'm not taking your tent" I whispered.

"Then we'll both sleep in the cold" He said as he stood up, grabbing his crossbow again and slipped his arms into his jacket, and pulled his vest on over everything. I glanced over at the motorcycle. I had never been on one before, my dad never allowed it.

"Where are you going?" I asked as he started to walk away.

"Where do you think, suns gone" I swung my legs around so I was sitting with my feet on the ground.

"Now?" I asked

"Good time as any" He said and looked back at me "You staying or comin'?" He asked

"Staying" I whispered and he nodded and took a step but started to walk back to me, pulling at the knife in the waist band of his jeans. "What's this?"

"If you're stayin' out here then you gotta have somethin'" He handed me the long bladed knife "You know how to kill 'em right?" I nodded and he looked me over again before he turned and walked away. I ran my finger over the tip and then stood up and pushed it into the belt on my side and sighed deeply. I didn't want to be around when people died, even if it was Randall. The breeze picked up some and I pulled the red flannel tighter around me as I walked towards his bike and ran my fingers gently over the handle bars and then glanced at his tent.

Pulling the zipper of the tent open, I climbed inside and shut it behind me as I sat down in a corner. It was empty except for a few magazines, a pillow and blankets. Of course it was empty; he didn't look like a guy who kept many things. To be honest, I didn't even know his name. Oh, that's so bad. I grabbed a magazine and flipped through it, cars, and cars. I picked up the other, home living. I laughed under my breath at that and lied down as I flipped through it.

"You sleep like the dead" He whispered as he stayed laying on his side, looking at me as I slept, the magazine discarded from my side and put back on the stack.

"I haven't slept in a long time" I whispered, opening my eyes just a bit to look at him.

"I bet" He breathed.

"How'd it go?"

"It didn't happen, Carl came in, fucked the whole thing up"

"Carl?"

"Rick's kid" I nodded and pulled my arm up under my head, keeping my eyes on him. "We lost someone, a guy from our group"

"Tonight?" He nodded

"Walker got in, tore his stomach apart" He looked at me again and I sighed quietly.

"I'm sorry" I whispered, swallowing hard. We stayed in silence for a few moments before I opened my mouth "What's your name?"

He chuckled under his breath "Sharing a tent with a man and you don't even know his name, do that often?" I rolled my eyes but smiled "Daryl Dixon" I nodded.

"Thank you Daryl"

"Don't mention it" He said and brought his hand over and I watched it carefully as he brushed some blonde locks off of my cheek to behind my ear and then he turned over onto his back and sighed. That was the first sweet and innocent touch I'd received in months.

"Tell me something about yourself" I said

"Not much to know"

"Did you have any brothers or sisters? Where are you from?" I asked a few to get him started, seeing that he needed a push.

"Brother, Merle. We lost him back in Atlanta, long story. And I was from a shit town about 100 miles south of here" I nodded

"Was Merle like you?"

"Like me?" He asked, turning his head to look at me.

"Headstrong, closed off, protective?" I asked and he narrowed his eyes

"No, Merle was a dick" He chuckled and I half smiled.

"I had a brother; he was kind of a dick too"

"You had a brother? What happened to him?" He asked

"He was in Atlanta when they dropped those bombs… we just all assumed he was gone" He nodded and looked down before throwing an arm underneath his head, looking up at the top of the dark tent now. "Thanks for letting me crash here, it's kind of soothing to finally be somewhere safe" I watched his Adams apple go up and down, signaling to me that he swallowed hard. "I'm okay you know" I told him "Sure it was bad in the beginning and I can't ever sleep because of it, but I survived somehow"

"I don't know how" He muttered, his eyes closed as I sighed, taking some of the big blanket and fanning it out over his legs and he looked over at me. "I don't need it, keep it"

"Daryl, its cold, shut up" He pulled at the blanket some and I smiled a bit. He was falling asleep now. "Is there a fresh water pond around here somewhere?" I asked him and he nodded lazily.

"About 3 miles North West, why?" He breathed

"No reason" I whispered back "Goodnight" He hummed and soon he was asleep.

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><p>The first thing I touched was the down-turned long log by the pond, taking in a deep breath as images of my father sitting here with me, talking about where we were going to be heading the next day before those men came. I glanced over at the side trees, one down against the other and my chest started to ache. I pulled the red flannel tighter around me as I walked over to it, pushing past the bush to look down at the dirt as I crouched down and picked up the sparkling ring and pushed the mud off of it and sighed deeply before hearing a snap of a few twigs to the left of me and I hid against the bushes, hearing the small groaning sounds.<p>

I stood up slowly once it's back was facing me and I walked over to it carefully, pulling the knife from my belt and leaning up and pushed the blade into the back of the walkers head and he groaned louder and then fell to his knees and I pulled the knife out, blood spraying all over my hands as it fell dead onto its stomach. I walked to the pond and crouched down, cleaning off my hands and the blade. I then pulled the belt off of my jeans and my jeans soon followed as I took a few steps into the cold water, cleaning off my legs from dirt and grime.

"Shit" I heard someone mutter and I turned around quickly, seeing Daryl walk out, crossbow pointed and he lowered it slowly and turned around "Why the fuck are you naked?" He asked with annoyance in his voice and I half smirked and wiped the dirt against my upper left thigh.

"I'm not naked" I simply told him.

"You're-"

"I'm in underwear and your shirt, I'm sure you've seen a girl dressed like this before on numerous occasions, don't be weird about it, I'm not" I crouched down and wet my hair and then threw it back into a high ponytail, putting some water on my face as well before walking out of the water and grabbing my pants "Fine, I was just having a bath" I pulled the pants up "You can turn around now" I zipped the jeans and grabbed my belt from the log as he turned around, looking me over and when I looked over at him, he turned his attention to something else.

"That's why you're out here at the crack ass of dawn? To take a damn bath? I woke up and you were gone. No trace of ya, if I hadn't remembered you askin me about this pond I wouldn't have known where you went"

"So you're mad that I ran off to clean up a bit?"

"No… that's not what I'm-"

"This is where it happened ya know, my dad's decomposing body is still over by the bushes, found his wedding ring" I pushed my hand into my pocket and pulled out the ring and then pushed it back in place in my pocket once he saw it.

"Here? Just miles from the farm" I nodded

"We were heading South East, hoping to make it to Florida or somewhere but this is where our Journey ended. If I had known that farm was there, god knows what would have happened" I trailed off, looking over at the rising sun.

"We should head back, c'mon" He said a few moments later and I looked over at him and sighed. Grabbing the knife and pushing it back into place at my hip.

_Daryl leaned against the tree, he felt strange just watching her take her jeans off, and then pulling his shirt up on her hips to show off her red spandex small underwear shorts as she walked into the pond up to her knees. He shouldn't be watching her, how her hair would blow in the cool breeze against her back and shoulder, how she'd dip her hips, her hands massaging the water into her dirty skin to make it clean. He readjusted the front of his jeans and groaned silently to himself. He used to watch those commercials of her and her sister when they came on the TV, selling some sort of face cleanser. He could remember her from those ads in the magazines. Why did she have to be the one to make him soft all of a sudden? When she started to turn her head the other way, he thought that making his presence known would be a good thing instead of being a creep and watching her clean herself._

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><p><strong>Please Review :) btw Daryl's thoughts are in <em>italics<em>, if you didn't pick that up.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

He was protective, and in a way I was thankful that he had been there at the pond, to make sure I was alright. It was good to know someone out there was watching over me. I looked over at him again as we walked, he walked with some kind of inner confidence but he was quiet and precise with his movements. She wondered what he looked like with his sweatshirt off, with his leather vest off. If he had tattoos, if he was built. He looked like he was in decent shape, he was fit. I hadn't had any physical contact with another, who had softer hands than those men in a long time, and last night, that simple act of him brushing my hair back over my ear… it was enough to make me look at him in a different way.

"Stop staring" He muttered, not even glancing over at me but I didn't look away from him as we continued to walk.

"Why, is it bothering you?" I asked him, smiling a bit.

"Yes, it's fucking weird, do I got something on me?"

"If I said yes you wouldn't believe me"

"Probably" He said and I rolled my eyes and finally looked away from him and then he put his hand up and it stopped me in my tracks.

"What are you-?" I started to say but his hand grabbed mine and he pulled me into him, his hand going over my mouth to stop me from talking.

"People, c'mon" I nodded once he said that into my ear and we got down as he pressed me against a large tree and kept his eyes on me. "Stay down, not a word" I nodded against his hand and he pulled it away from my mouth, keeping his other arm around me protectively. I could hear the two men now, talking randomly about something. We didn't need these men coming after us, and then our group. Soon enough the voices faded off into the distance and Daryl stood up first, looking around carefully before putting a hand out and I took it as he helped pull me to my feet and I stood against the tree, brushing my jeans off casually.

"Who do you think they were?"

"No clue but I'm not sticking around to find out, c'mon" We walked side by side the rest of the way back and once we were in the clearing he relaxed just a bit, his tense shoulders slouching. "I'm sure they're out cookin' breakfast, go eat something" I looked over at him and nodded, walking before him to across the field and over to the house, he was at least 15 feet back from me.

"Hey there she is, where'd you run off to last night?" Lori asked as I walked over to the group, and I pushed my hands into the front pocket of my jeans awkwardly.

"Um" I looked over at Daryl who was speaking with Rick and he glanced over at me "I didn't want to impose so I set up camp by the far woods"

"Near Daryl?" A skinny, gray haired woman asked and I looked over at her and nodded slowly before sitting down. "I'm Carol by the way" She said after and I half smiled up at her.

"Aurora" I told her and she nodded

"It's good to meet you" I nodded back at her as Lori handed me a bowl of what looked like cooked corn and some type of meat, broken off into thin slices. My stomach turned and I winced my eyes a bit. "Something wrong?"

"I just don't eat meat"

"Really?" Lori asked "I was a vegetarian before all of this but you take what you can get"

I looked over at her and shook my head "I really can't, would you like-" Daryl came over and dipped his fingers into my bowl, pulling the meat out for himself "Or help yourself Daryl" I muttered as he walked away with the meat, biting into the pieces.

"You two seem to be getting along, saw you out there yesterday" Lori said and I nodded as I took a bite of the corn, savoring the taste.

"Yeah, he's nice"

"Nice? Daryl is anything but nice" A man said and I looked over and he smirked down at me, and a shiver ran down my spine, making me not want to be here anymore under his stare "Shane" He held out his hand to me and I brushed my hand off on my jeans and shook his hand lightly "Pleasure." I nodded, keeping my mouth shut as I went back to eating my food. After eating, everyone was doing one thing or another. Apparently people were moving their camps inside of the house because of the attack last night but I didn't budge when Lori asked if I wanted my move my "camp" inside of the house. I felt save with Daryl, there was no way I was moving anything.

"You ain't aiming it right… here" He muttered annoyed as he took the gun from my hands and aimed it right at the target on the tree and shot, it hitting a little to the left of the target bull's-eye but it was close enough. "Ease up on it a bit" He said and handed me the gun again as I held it the way he showed me and I closed one eye and aimed it again and pulled the trigger and it was still off.

"I give up"

"No you ain't" He said as he took one of his hands and placed it on my hands with the gun lifted. When he came up to stand close behind me, I tensed a bit "Just teachin'" I relaxed a bit as his chest pressed to my back softly, his other arm coming up beside me and his hand held onto the other side of my hands. "Loosen up, you're gripping the thing like it's gonna explode… there" He said against the side of my head and I was getting distracted by other things, like his breathing on the side of my neck. He pointed the gun at the target and let me pull the trigger and it hit it straight down the middle. He pulled back from me and I missed the warmth his body was radiating immediately.

"Try on your own now" He said to me as he took a few steps back and I pointed and shot and it hit the target and he chuckled. "There now you know how to shoot right." I nodded and pushed the gun back into the back of my jeans, a place where he said to keep it at all times after he had given it to me about an hour ago. "So you don't eat meat, why?" He asked randomly.

"I just don't like the taste all that much" I told him.

"Vegetarian?"

"No, I loved meat before now I just can't stomach it" He raised his eyebrow

"Because of that?" He pointed at my shirt and I nodded

"I'm guessing" I said "but-"

"RICK!" We both darted our heads towards the sound "RICK!" It was T-Dog and he was running towards Rick, said something and then he turned his head in our direction.

"Shit, what now?" He muttered as he picked up his crossbow and he looked at me, motioning with his head to follow. I did as I was told, jogging with him towards the shed where Randall was being held up in. "What's going on?"

"Randall got out" Carol said, her arms tightly wrapped around herself and her gray cardigan sweater. I took in a deep breath, my heart starting to pound in my chest.

"What you mean he got out? He was cuffed"

"Slipped them" Rick said as he walked out of the doors of the shed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Everyone in the house, lock the doors and windows, Daryl, Glenn" He nodded towards both men and it was then that I realized that I was clutching Daryl's arm after getting the news. I pulled my hands back instantly and he glanced back at me for a second.

"RICK. RICK!" Shane came walking out of the woods, blood all over his nose.

"What happened?" Lori called

"Little bastard just snuck up on me, clocked me in the face" He said as he made his way over to the group. Before we knew it, Rick was pulling the three men together and Daryl turned back around towards me.

"Get in the house, get in a room, and lock the door. You hear me? Not takin' any chances with this asshole and his group" I nodded and he put a hand against the side of my face quickly and then turned and was walking off with the men. I took in deep breaths and Lori started to gather people into the house.

Soon the daylight burned and now darkness spread over the farm as I watched outside of the window at the top of the stairs. I was itching to just run; I didn't feel at all safe here. I only knew Lori, and Carol, and Hershel. Daryl, Rick, and Glenn were out there looking for Randall with the creepy Shane before he could get to his group, god help us if he got to them.

Another hour rolled on and then I heard the screen door downstairs, Daryl's voice saying something about Randall being a walker in the woods. I walked down to the bottom step and he looked over at me and then kept on talking to the group huddled on the couches in the living room. Lori asked him if he could go back out there, find Rick and Shane for her and he nodded, walking back out of the screen door.

Now they all started to walk out of the door. I slowly followed, being the last one out and now I knew why. Herds upon herds of walkers were coming towards the farm. Then I was being pushed inside of the house again with a few of the girls, and then we were searching for Lori's son.

It was an all-around panic attack waiting to happen. The gunshots outside were getting faster with each trigger pull, it was making me jumpy. Then we were all being ushered out of the house to get into one of the cars that was pulling up, I ran out with Carol, looking behind us as one of the woman got taken down and I pulled the gun from the back of my jeans and aimed and shot at a few walkers near us and then Carol was screaming and I looked over and a walker was biting down on her neck and I pointed the gun at the walker and he dropped as I got down on my knees and pushed my hands against her neck. She was looking up at me frantically.

"No, no, hold on, hold on" I pressed my hands at the opening on the side of her neck, near her collarbone. I grabbed my knife from my side and pressed it to my wrist and pulled at the skin, making a slice and I let out a frustrated scream as I shoved it against her open mouth, covered with her own blood. "Just drink it, please, please just drink it Carol."

She was gone though, her eyes slacking, her body going limp and I pulled my hands away from her and took in a deep breath, shaking myself out of my thoughts as Andrea yelled for me and shot a walker in the back of the head that was coming for me and another on the other side of me. I pushed the sleeve of the flannel down against my bleeding wrist and stood up, brushing my hands against my jeans to get the sticky blood off.

"Andrea look out!" I called as she turned around and shot the walker in the head but that was before he fell on top. No, no, no. Everyone was dying.

I held the gun in one of my hands, shooting a walker and looked around for a car but there weren't any. Everyone was leaving or had left. I tried to listen out for Daryl's bike but I couldn't hear it so I ran as fast as I could towards the outer fences of the farm, shooting walkers as best I could until I was out of ammo and I shoved the gun back into the waistband of my jeans, bolting for the fence as walkers started to slowly become a small herd after me.

Oh my cardio was bad; I was so out of breath.

"Help!" I screamed "Fucking help" I whispered to myself as I pressed my hand to my cut wrist, jogging along the fence now until I got to the open road. That's when I heard the roar of the bike and then it rounded the corner and I slowed my jogging.

"Get on, I ain't got all day" He muttered the last part as I quickly pulled my leg over the back of the bike and sat down, wrapping my good arm around his stomach as he pushed the bike to go and we were speeding off, my cheek pressed to the back of his shoulder so I didn't have to see any more of it. We slowed down about three quarters of the way to the highway and he pulled off to the side of the road, the sun was just coming up, dimly lighting everything around us. I leaned back against the sissy bar, exhausted and drained.

"Lemme see" he said, motioning to the wrist that was being clutched to my chest, blood soaking me. I had cut just deep enough, not knowing what I was doing. I held out my wrist and he pulled the bloody sleeve up. "What happened?" He asked, taking a rag and wiping the blood away.

"I tried to save Carol" I whispered and he stopped wiping and looked at me, a sad look coming to his eyes before it was gone in a flash. He wrapped the rag around my wrist tightly.

"Looks like it'll heal on its own, anywhere else?" He asked and I shook my head, looking down at my blood stained jeans. I have to get new ones eventually. "You sure?" I nodded at his question and he sighed deeply "Anyone else you know of?" He asked as he climbed back on the bike and pushed the kickstand off of the ground, turning the bike on.

"Andrea, some walker fell on her when she was trying to save me" He pulled away from the side of the road; my arms wrapping around his stomach again as he sped off. Once we got to the highway, Glenn and Maggie, as well as Lori, Beth, and T-Dog were following us and we parked to the side and I ran away from the others and crouched down, vomiting whatever food was left in my system.

Everything was just going too fast, it had to slow down. I took in a few deep breaths. Two people from their group had died because they were around me. This wasn't right. I felt the gun in the back of my jeans being pulled out and I glanced up at Daryl as he pulled the clip out and loaded in a new one.

"How you doing?" He asked as he handed me back the gun.

"Other than not being able to feel my head, pretty decent" I muttered as I stood up and pushed the gun back into place.

"We're headed out, you good to ride?" I nodded and walked with him back to the bike and hopped on the back as he got on the front and we were off again.

It was hours. At least that's what it felt like until we all came to a stop on the side of a road, I stayed on the back of the bike as Daryl got off. Rick's truck was running on fumes, that's why we stopped. Gas was running low on all of the vehicles. We were in the middle of nowhere.

"**This isn't a democracy…**" Rick went on as I stayed huddled under one of Daryl's old jackets he found in his pack on the side of his bike. I was by the fire with everyone else, trying to keep myself warm and drown out Carl's crying.

No matter how exhausted I still was from the day's events, and the lack of sleep, I couldn't sleep at all on the ground near these people.

I pulled the red flannel off, and tossed it to the side, putting my hands against the running waterfall against the wall and I started to clean my arms from the blood of Carol's and mine. Then I started to put water on my jeans, trying to scrub the blood off of them but once it wasn't coming off I started to get frustrated.

"You're gonna freeze ya self to death if ya keep putting cold water on you" I ignored him as I continued to scrub at the flannel now and he put a hand on my shoulder and I pulled away from him. "Look it's been a long day; we're all exhausted and frustrated. Just leave it, grab that sweatshirt I gave to you and I'll do this" He tried to take the flannel from me but I pulled that back as well.

"I've got it" I whispered, choking back on my tears that couldn't stop falling for the last 10 minutes.

"Hey" He said and pulled the flannel from my hands harder this time and I let it slip as I put a hand to my mouth to stop myself. He dropped the flannel. "I have plenty of shirts you can take, now come on girl" He said, and I shook my head.

"It's not about the shirt, it's about how I couldn't save them, Carol was just there, not even 5 feet from me when the walker got her in the neck. I tried so fucking hard to save her and Andrea…" I trailed off

"Look, you can't save everyone" He tried to reason with me but I turned around and looked at him.

"Then what am I good for? Why am I here still? Two of your group died because they were near me, people die all the time when they come close to me" I whispered out, trying to catch my breath and he took my hand and pulled me off to the side, away from the group a little further so they wouldn't get woken up. He cornered me in a dark place against one of the walls of brick.

"You ain't supposed to save everyone. From the sound of it Carol was a lost cause, she got bit in the neck? She was already dead. And Andrea, nothing you coulda done about that one too, so you gotta stop this" He said in a hushed voice.

"What am I good for?" I whispered at him, looking at him frantically and he pressed his hands to the sides of my face. Keeping me there so he could grab my attention and it did get my attention right away.

"You're good just like the rest of us, you're a part of this group now so calm the fuck down and take a deep breath because you are being ridiculous" I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath and let it out, then again as I started to feel the panic attack fading. "You good?" I nodded at his question and pulled the sweatshirt on my half naked body, pulling my arms up to cross over my chest to warm myself up a bit.

"Do you need help on watch?" I asked but he shook his head.

"Go get some shut eye, should be heading out in about 2 hours" I nodded again, keeping myself quiet as I walked past him and found the spot where I had been laying and grabbed the jacket I was using as a blanket and wrapped it around my upper body, pulling my legs up to my chest to cover my whole body, and then I put my head down against my arm under my head. I exhaled and watched as my breath showed warm in the cool air of the night before me. We couldn't go on like this, people would freeze to death.

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><p><strong>Please Review :)<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

"Got it" Daryl muttered as I was about to lift a heavy wooden object off of a door to a garage area. Lori looked over at me sideways, raising her eyebrow in confusion. Daryl didn't like me touching things, or if he thought something was too heavy or too complicated he would volunteer himself and people were starting to ask questions in our group. Beth even asked me last week if Daryl and I had a thing going on. I quickly shot it down. Daryl was acting like an older brother, trying to protect his valuable sister.

I got frustrated and pulled my hands away from the wooden object and took a few steps back, stuffing my hands into my front pockets of the jacket and looked to the side as he pulled the log off and tossed it to the side with a grunt.

"Daryl, you and I will go in first, T-dog and Glenn back us up" They all nodded and opened up the door and walked inside, flashlights on and guns and crossbow ready in front of them. I sat down against a tree, sighing as I put my head down against my knees. "It's all clear" We heard Rick say about 5 minutes later and I stood up slowly, grabbing the backpack and walked in the large door as Maggie pulled a few window shades off to the side so there was light and I dropped the bag to the side. It had been two months, and Beth was really the only one that spoke to me, other than Daryl, sometimes.

"Maybe you should, ya know" Beth whispered over to me and I shook my head.

"Just go to sleep" I whispered back, huddled under the blanket.

"Are you telling me you don't see the way he is around you? How he looks at you?"

"It's not like that" I told her "You're seeing things, we got a long day tomorrow, and we both need sleep"

"Alright… goodnight"

"Night" I muttered and sighed, keeping my eyes closed as I slowly drifted off to sleep again.

There was a loud banging noise, people shuffling around when I was startled awake when Beth's leg hit mine. "What's going on?" I asked and Beth put her hand against my mouth and I looked over at her and she pulled it off of my face.

"There's a person out there" She whispered in breaths to me and I nodded as Rick and what looked to be Daryl and T had their backs pressed to the wall by the door, we were all shuffled off into a corner away from the door just in case.

"Please oh god, please open the door" The woman said behind the closed door. "I'm alone, PLEASE" she begged and my heart broke at her quiet pleas of help from strangers.

"One, two, three" Rick and T pulled the door open and pointed their guns at the woman. But then they slowly put them down.

"Carol?" Rick asked in shock and my ears perked up as a drenched and muddy Carol came through the doors, ushered in by T. "Are you bit or scratched?"

"Neither. Oh thank god I found you guys" She hugged Rick, then hugged Daryl and T-dog and then Lori, Maggie, Glenn, Hershel, Beth and then she looked at me and turned back around towards the others.

"What happened? People said you were taken down"

"I was, one of those walkers fell on me but I killed him. By the time I could get up from being knocked down everyone was gone. I tracked the marks on the dirt path to the highway, by that time you were all gone" Lori was hugging her again as Carol started to sob. Daryl caught my eyes and I swallowed hard. He walked over to Carol and leaned into her ear and she nodded, wiping away her tears as Maggie gave her some dry clothes to wear as Daryl came over to me.

"What the fuck happened again?" He asked

"I swear, it wasn't working, she was dead"

"Well something happened" He muttered and I nodded and looked over at Carol, who glanced over in our direction. "Come on, we gotta talk" I nodded as Carol followed behind us to outside, where the rain was just falling in a mist now.

"Carol I-"

"Don't. The last thing I remember, you were on top of me, feeding me something. What happened?" She asked and I looked over at Daryl.

"I was trying to save you… you were bit"

"I know that, but somehow that's gone, no trace of it except for a scratch scar" She showed me the side of her neck, flashes of it cut open by teeth showed behind my eyes and I shuddered.

"When I was with the other group, I was taken after my father had-"

Daryl put a hand down on my arm to stop me and I shook him off "my father had bit me" I pulled the zipped of my jacket and pulled up my sweatshirt and flannel underneath to show her the bite mark on my ribs and she looked it over "I didn't turn, so the group took me as a prisoner. When one of their men got bit, they tried using my blood as a cure so he didn't turn and it worked. But when I tried it on you…" I swallowed hard, averting my eyes from hers "you were dead, you didn't have a pulse so I left, I didn't think that it would-"

"Work?" She asked "Oh lord, Daryl you've been keeping the cure for all of this hidden from the group? She could save the damn human population" Daryl shook his head.

"S'not going to happen, she's part of the group" He muttered and Carol shook her head

"Does Rick at least know about it?"

"It's not an it, it's a her, and I'm standing right here Carol" She looked over at me and sighed deeply.

"You understand that you could save us right? You're the cure"

"We don't know that, we don't know if my blood can save the whole fucking world, I've only tried it on two people"

"And it's worked both times" She said to me and I put a hand to the side of my head, rubbing my throbbing temples gently.

"We can't take the risk, people finding out about her, the other group knows she's still alive, with us, we ain't gonna just let her go to some CDC to cure all of this, hear me?" Daryl said to her straight forward and then she looked over at me again, her eyes weary.

"Fine but you tell Rick or I will" She left now and I let out a shaky breath.

"Is she always this demanding because if I knew that then I wouldn't have-"

"Shut up" He muttered and I bit down on my bottom lip gently.

"Don't tell me to shut up, we barely talk anymore, so you shut up" He glanced over at me and I pulled the hood up over my head more as I walked away from him in the early morning light.

"Where you going?" He asked

"Don't matter" I muttered as I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets and continued toward a dry area under a tree. "I'm not gonna be in there when you tell Rick, I'm sick of people dissecting me. Rick and I have become somewhat good friends and I don't need him looking at me like I shot him in the damn foot for not telling him" I told Daryl and he leaned himself up against the tree in front of me.

"He ain't gonna do anything to ya"

"The fuck if I know that, for all I know he could drain me dry" Being with these people, my Chicago accent had been fading and soon enough I had been sounding more country every day.

"Ain't gonna do that, just wait"

"You do everything Carol tells you to do?" I asked him as he turned around to walk back into the garage, storage area where we started to set up camp up after we had slept there overnight to avoid the downpour of cold rain. He only gave me a soft grunting noise before he disappeared inside.

I took this chance of alone time to hide myself behind a few big bushes and a large fallen down tree stump. I could hear the voices of Daryl and Rick now as he pulled him outside to talk.

"It's true Rick" I heard Carol now, damn her. She and I were not going to ever be friends.

I leaned my head down against my knees and shut them out as I kept my breathing normal when Daryl started to call my name, then Rick. "C'mon stop fucking around" Daryl muttered and I sighed and stood up slowly, they were to my left together. Carol no longer in sight. I took in a deep breath and shuffled a few steps forward over the stump. "Go on and show him" I looked Rick over and pulled the zip on my jacket open before pulling the sweatshirt up and he took a double take at the bite and then took a few steps forward to get a closer look, he got down on one knee to the side of me, his fingers ghosting over the area at my ribs.

"It doesn't hurt?" He asked and I pursed my lips a bit, trying not to feel awkward, and not looking at him, anywhere but him.

"Sorta, only sometimes, especially when I'm trying to save someone, in which I never did get a fucking thank you from her" Rick looked up at me before he stood up and took a step back as I pulled the sweatshirt down and pulled the zipper up securely.

"What's it feel like?" He asked

"Sorta feels like getting kicked in the ribs" I retorted and Rick looked back at Daryl and back at me.

"I think we should keep this between us, us four, Carol isn't going to say anything to the others, if you've been keeping this from us for a month, you sure as hell ain't saying anything" I raised my eyebrows up at him once he turned back at me.

"Why?" I asked him and swallowed hard.

"We don't need the group knowing there's a cure right there in their grasp and them not caring if they get bit or scratched, we can't have that" I nodded; it was good thinking on his part "How are you now?" He asked.

"I'm fine" I whispered, sighing out a deep breath "I just…"

"What?" He asked me and I shook my head "What is it?" He asked again.

"I just want Daryl to stop treating me like I can't do anything, I can pull my own weight around here without getting hurt, a cut isn't going to kill me ya know" I pulled my wrist sleeve up to show them the scars there from slicing it open to save two people. Rick's eyes widened a bit. "I ain't suicidal, where do you think the cure comes from? It's gross as all hell but they have to drink my blood."

"A little gross" He muttered and I nodded, crossing my arms over my chest once I pulled the sleeve back down. "This stays between us though, alright? And we'll figure out something that you can do."

"I took a lot of cooking classes before all of this happened, I can help with that" Rick looked over at me and paused, but then nodded.

"You skinnin' animals? Now this is something I've gotta see" Daryl said as we made our way back inside, I nudged him with my elbow as I passed him. I just wanted to hang out with Beth and Maggie for the rest of the day without any more drama.

The only animal I had "skinned" as Daryl put it was a Duck, and I chopped its head off in culinary class, in which I didn't want to do but I did it anyways to eat. Skinning out here was much different. Daryl caught a rabbit one day and left me to it and I nearly cried before cutting the skin off of the poor animal, he then cooked it up.

I had been living off of berries that I could find, and we even found a corner store in the middle of nowhere and I ate some cereal out of a box I took for my backpack. Things were settling, people in the group were looking at me like I was part of their own now and it felt nice to finally feel like I belonged somewhere again. Even if we were traveling a lot to find a place to settle down and make a living out of, we were all becoming friends in a way.

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><p>I jumped a bit when Rick threw the can across the room and it hit against the fireplace, he definitely wasn't a friend to anyone, he was a leader now. I could trust him though, to save my life because he did a few months back when we were on a run, walker came up from behind me without me knowing it was there and he stabbed it in the head before it reached me. But everyone had looked at him different since the night after the farm burnt down, he changed.<p>

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><p>"You owe me" Beth muttered as she held out her hand and I put some berries from my pack into her hand and sighed.<p>

"I have a little hope we can find someplace, I just thought maybe that was the one house, it looked nice" I whispered as Glenn drove in front with Maggie in the passenger's seat, Beth in the back with me, and Hershel, whom in which chuckled after I gave her the berries. "Do you want some Hershel?" I asked and he shook his head

"No thank you sweetheart, save them for the two of you" I half smiled and nodded, shoving them back into my bag before zipping it up. We stopped then in the middle of a road and we all hopped out. They were planning on going a direction to find another house which we couldn't live in probably. I leaned against the car, crossing my arms over my chest and sighed.

"Can you cut my hair later on? Just a few inches it's sort of getting in the way" Maggie asked as she came back from the front of the line and I nodded.

"Of course, no problem" She smiled and nodded before talking to Glenn off to the side. I envied their relationship, how tough they had been through this whole ordeal. I watched as his hand fanned the side of her face and I flickered my eyes over to Daryl talking to Rick still, that night 7 months ago was the last time Daryl got that close to me, or even touched me gently.

"You're staring again" Beth mumbled as she pulled the back door open and I shot her a dirty look.

"Hey we're gonna fill up on water down by the creek, boil it later on, you coming?" T-Dog said and I shook my head, I already had a full water bottle in my pack that I hadn't even sipped from yet.

"No you guys go, I'll hold down the fort" He smiled and nodded before jogging away. For some reason I had the feeling he was crushing on me, he was really nice and all but it wasn't going to happen.

I watched as all of them went down the side of the road into the woods and Daryl and Rick went off in a separate way, maybe to find some food. I took in a deep breath and glanced around, Lori was sitting in the front seat in their beat up SUV and I didn't want to disturb her so I just walked to the side of the road and watched them filling up there water bottles.

I half smiled and brought my hand up and touched the necklace around my neck, fingering the gold ring and took in another deep breath. It was getting warmer out and soon enough summer was going to roll around and it was going to be hotter than a desert, we needed to find a place to stay and soon. The days were warm and the nights were cold, I glanced back at the SUV again, Lori wasn't going to give birth on some back road, we needed someplace secure.

"Hey wanna drive for a while?" Glenn asked as he held up the keys and jingled them a bit and I turned around quickly and winced, putting a hand to my side "Whoa, are you alright?" He asked as he walked over to me, shoving the keys into his pocket.

"Yeah, just turned the wrong way and yeah I'd love to drive" I smiled wide and he pulled the keys out and put them in my hand.

"You're sure you're alright? You seem to be holding that side a lot these days" He motioned to my hand on my ribs and I nodded, pulling it away and shrugged.

"I must have bruised them or something; I'll have Hershel check them out later alright?" He nodded and patted my shoulder before we walked back over to the car and I pulled the front door open

"Hey no fair"

"I had my driver's license before all this shit went down, remember Beth" I muttered her way and hopped into the front seat and turned the car on. I watched Carol hop on the back of Daryl's bike and wrap an arm around his waist and I rolled my eyes. Carol and I actually had gotten close, she was like a mother I never had but yet I couldn't stand her all over him. As the final back door shut, I pulled away from the curb of the road and started driving, following the two others in front of me.

The throbbing on my side subsided as I sat there driving for about 5 minutes until they all pulled to the side of a dirt road this time. What was going on? I sighed and pulled the keys from the ignition and slid out onto my feet.

"What's going on?" Glenn asked as Rick gathered everyone together.

"Daryl and I found a prison, walkers in the yards but if we can get in, we can take them all out… it would be a good place to set up camp for a while, somewhere secure" I glanced around and then back at Rick and nodded myself. Prison's had large fences; we could be safe for weeks, maybe even months.

It was double fenced and we had to be careful of the walkers outside of the fence before even getting in. But once we were in, I glanced at all of the walkers inside of the fence and raised my eyebrow, there had to be about 30 standing walkers, going nowhere fast.

"Here" Glenn tossed me a crowbar and I glanced at it before nodded and jogging with them over to the fence and started to yell to get the walkers attention. Taking in a deep breath, I pushed the crowbar forward into a walker's forehead and he went down almost instantly, then I did it to another, and another as the gunshots started to the side of us in the yard.

"HEY HEY!" I screamed at a straying walker and he turned and went straight towards me and I killed him as well. "Ah fuck" I muttered as I pressed my hand to my ribs as I used the other hand with the crowbar to kill the walkers. Once the gunfire stopped, we finished off the last three at the fence and turned around and headed into the yard. It was great and there was so much room.

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><p><strong>Please Review :)<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6.**

I pulled my crowbar from the side of the backpack but Rick put his hand down on my shoulder before I could stand up. "A word?" I glanced at him and nodded before putting it down and standing and walking away from the rest of the group casually. "Sides been bothering you" He mentioned, it wasn't a question.

"Glenn say something?"

"Didn't need to, you've been clutching that side for about a month, what's going on?" I sighed deeply and shook my head

"I'm fine, it's just a dull pain it's nothing"

"Ain't nothing if you're in pain, what's going on?" He asked again, his voice going lower.

"I don't know" I whispered, shaking my head "It's just painful, more painful than before" I looked down at the grass.

"No more work for you" He said "Give Maggie the crowbar" he turned to walk away now and I grabbed his wrist and pulled him back and he didn't look happy with what I just did.

"I can help; this isn't going to stop me"

"Until we know what's going on, you aren't doing anymore heavy lifting work, you've done enough"

"What are you going to tell them?" I whispered letting his wrist go gently.

"Broken rib, you fell a few days ago, it'll be believable" I nodded and he walked away now as I followed slowly behind and picked up my bag. "Stay with Lori?" He asked and I nodded again.

"Change of plans, Maggie" He said as we got back to the group and I tossed my crowbar towards her and she caught it "You're taking Aurora's spot, c'mon" Maggie nodded and looked over at me and I smiled gently.

"What happened?" Beth asked and I sighed deeply.

"I've been nursing a broken rib, Rick found out, doesn't want me getting more injured so thus this happened" I muttered at her and she nodded.

"Ain't a broken rib is it?" Daryl muttered as I walked by him to go back down the lower level to my bunk with Beth later on that day. I glanced over at him and sighed.

"What do you think?" I asked and he sat up and then stood up.

"You gonna show it to me or you gonna just stand there?" He asked and I sighed and walked into the perch to be out of ear shot from everyone else that was either sleeping or just about to fall asleep. He followed behind and I glanced at the dead guy in the chair and cringed a bit. I took in a deep breath and pulled up the dark blue tank top and his eyes widened. "What the fuck" He muttered at me before looking at me finally, other than then my side.

"It started a few weeks ago" I whispered "I haven't told Rick, Carol or you because I knew what the reaction was going to be… that" I muttered looking at his shocked face.

"Why's it doin'… that?" He asked, lifting up the side of my shirt again without asking to have another look, the bite itself was red and puffy, but around it, it was bruising and small veins of mine were a bright red color around it.

"How the fuck should I know?" I sighed and when he went to touch it, I hit his hand away from me "Don't touch me" I whispered, pulling my shirt down and he looked at me a little hurt. "It's good to see you're finally talking to me again, and not about hunting, or going on a run, or washing something" I told him as I leaned against the desk after he pushed the dead guy in the chair to the side.

"I'm not talking to you? Hell you've been avoiding me like the fucking plague"

"It's nice to know you actually know about the plague" I mentioned and he shot me an annoyed look and I smirked "I'm kidding; I really thought you just stopped talking to me, I mean after that night who wouldn't stop talking to me, I was a wreck"

"You had your reasons, you went through a lot" He muttered and I nodded.

"So how's life treating you?" I asked and he gave me a sarcastic smile

"Peachy, how's yours?"

"Just dandy, thanks for asking. How's the love life?" I asked and he rose an eyebrow "Seriously, how are you and Carol doing?" I asked him and he kept giving me that look

"You think Carol and I…? No, no fucking way" He said and now it was my time to look confused.

"Really though? I mean she's all over you, all of the time it's a little sickening" He smirked and chuckled under his breath

"I'm not the one for fancy relationships; you should know that by now" He whispered

"You could have fooled me" I told him and took in a deep breath and looked down "I'm probably dying from this thing" I whispered.

"You ain't dying, we'll figure it out"

"How? I'm the only one around here like me and there are no experts around here Daryl" I looked at him and he took a few steps forward and raised my chin a bit with his fingers to look up at him.

"You ain't dying" He said again, a little more clearly and a little bit with more confidence, trying to make me believe it. "At least not on my watch" He whispered and then took his hand away from my face and cleared his throat.

"You might not realize it but when you do stuff like that, you're sending me foggy signals" I whispered to him and he took a step back from me.

"I ain't trying to"

"I know" I whispered "And I'm trying hard not to like you" I told him honestly.

"You're a baby compared to me, you shouldn't-"

"I'm 12 years younger than you" I looked around "But does that matter these days?" I whispered and he shook his head.

"Don't like me darling, it won't end well" He said and I smiled and pushed myself from the desk and nodded.

"How about you stop liking me first" I poked his chest lightly and he chuckled as I walked by him and started walking down the steps. "Goodnight" I whispered up to him, not waiting for a reply as I walked into my cell and sat down on my bottom bunk before untying my shoes and taking them off. It had been weeks since those had come off and it felt great to wiggle my toes before I finally got some rest on the mattress.

I watched as they all left the next morning but I stayed in my bunk, sleep didn't come easy, even in this secured prison. I couldn't shake the feeling of something bad happening to that bite on my side, it throbbed throughout the night but it didn't flare up with pain until I moved, so that's the main reason why I wasn't getting up.

"Aurora, Carl and I are going to play gin if you're interested" Beth mentioned to me and I looked over at her and nodded.

"Yeah just give me a minute" She nodded and left as I pulled myself up to sit, pressing my hand into my side as I stood up and let out a small displeasured sound before shaking it off and walking out of my cell to see both of them sitting on the ground passing out the cards. I slid down against the wall and smiled at the both of them.

"You have to be cheating" I told Carl, laughing under my breath as he won the fourth time in a row.

"Nope, Dad just taught me how to play good" He said and smiled at me and I rolled my eyes as he dealt out the cards again and I picked up my hand and placed three cards down and he handed me three new ones.

"CARL!" I heard Rick shouting and Carl scrambled to his feet as did Beth and I pushed myself up slowly while Lori and Carol came from there bunk "IT'S HERSHEL. CARL!" He shouted again as Carl opened up the gate and then in came all of them in a rush, Hershel was laying passed out on a table.

"Oh god, dad?!" Beth screamed and Rick grabbed my arm quickly.

"Do something" He told me "He got bit, his leg, he's losing a lot of blood" I nodded at him "Don't matter who knows now" He muttered to himself as I rushed into the cell where they were putting him down on his mattress. Carol looked over at me.

"You have to wrap something around the wound, alright? And tight" I told her and she nodded as she started to grab one of the towel and wrap it around his wound on the calf.

"He's gonna die" Beth said mostly to herself as Lori hugged her. I dropped down onto my knees and pulled the knife from my belt and took in a deep breath. "What are you doing?" Lori asked

"Just let her work" Carol said as I opened Hershel's mouth.

"Actually I don't think it would be great if you guys saw this" I looked back at the both of them "Please?"

"No what are you doing?"

"Lori" Rick said and she nodded as she pulled Beth out of the room with her as I sliced deep against my wrist and closed my eyes as I pressed my wound to Hershel's lips.

"C'mon Hershel" I whispered as I rubbed my fingers along his neck so the blood wouldn't just sit at the back of his throat and it would enter his esophagus.

"How long does it usually take?" Carol asked and I looked over at her

"I don't know" I whispered "With the first guy it only took a few hours for him to be okay, you… a few hours I'm guessing?" She nodded as I continued to rub against his throat; Carol wiped the blood away from his chin that was seeping into his beard. I took in a few deep breaths as my body started to slump in relaxation now.

"I think that's enough" Rick said

"Just a little more" I whispered as the dizzy spells washed over me and I tried to blink them away the best I could. Carol then grabbed my hand away from his mouth and wrapped a towel around my wrist, pressing her hand against the wound to stop the blood flow.

"You've got to lay down, it was enough" Carol whispered to me "You saved his life" She told me and I nodded as I stood up slowly and walked out of the cell, holding tightly to the towel around my wrist.

"What happened?" Maggie asked and I shook my head as I walked into my cell one over and didn't make it to the bed before my knees gave out on me.

"I've got you" Rick said as she caught my waist and helped me to my bed and sat me down and put a hand to my face as I looked at him from my half closed eyes. "You need rest, c'mon" he half smiled at me as he helped me lay down on my side "I'll sit with you, keep pressure on it" he said and I nodded weakly as I closed my eyes and darkness washed over me.

"Mmm no stop" I breathed out "Stop"

"Shhh girl, wake up" Someone mumbled as they patted the side of my face gently and I gasped, my eyes going wide as I fought against the person there over me "Fucking hell calm down" He whispered annoyed and I took in a deep breath.

"Daryl?" I whispered and I saw him in the dim light now, it was dark everywhere.

"How you feeling?" He asked as he put a hand to my face again, was I sweating?

"I'm cold" I whispered "And tired"

"Carol said you were running a fever, wasn't sure you were gonna come back a walker" He muttered as he set himself back on the ground, was there a mattress there? I wrinkled my nose a bit but didn't ask him.

"How's Hershel?"

"Alive, apparently you saving him let out a can of worms, people asking questions and shit, not too pleased we kept it from them" I sighed deeply and moved my numb fingers around, my other fingers moving along the gauzed bandage over my wrist.

"What happened? There was some sort of commotion outside of the cell block before I passed out"

"Found some prisoners, alive. Now only 2 are alive, held up in a cell block away from here"

"Did you kill them?" I asked

"Nah, don't worry about it… how's your side doing? I looked about an hour ago and those lines were gone"

"They were?" I asked and pulled the shirt up and looked at the scar, no puffiness or veins "Hmm, that's odd, it feels okay, no pain other than my wrist" He nodded and took in a deep breath.

"Well get more sleep, you'll probably be on bed rest for the rest of the damn week giving out all your damn blood" He muttered as he lay back down.

"Where's Beth?"

"Sleeping in with Hershel, grabbed her mattress" He muttered "I fucking hate being in here" I glanced around and nodded

"Been in too many jail cells I presume?" I asked him

"Too many because of my damn brother" He mumbled "Go to sleep"

"Come up here and sleep with me" I whispered and he didn't say anything for a moment "I'm serious, what if I'm dying or something? I'm freezing" I whispered, wrapping my good arm around me.

"It's 80 fucking degrees in here"

"I have a fever" I whispered "Remember?"

"Fucking hell" He muttered as I heard him shuffling "Don't make this a fucking habit" He said "Scoot" I shuffled my body against the wall as he laid down next to me and I leaned against him as he carefully wrapped an arm around my shoulders "If I get shit for this" He whispered

"Just tell them you saw me shivering when I was sleeping, decided that body heat would help, in which it is" I whispered, pressing my cheek against his shoulder. "You need to shower more" He grumbled and I smirked.

"Go to sleep" he muttered and I let my arm fall against his chest lightly.

"Thank you, it won't be a habit I promise" I leaned up and kissed the side of his jaw and placed my head back into the crook of his arm again before closing my eyes.

_ Daryl traced his fingers into the locks of blonde hair that were in a ponytail at the back of her head, the last time he was doing this with a girl was when he was 15. Then it was just sex and nothing else with women after that, no attachment. He looked down at her as her breathing evened out and he sighed, looking up at the bars on the top bunk above him. Not falling for this girl was going to be harder than he thought, and she knew it too. But what she needed was a boyfriend, a guy to hold her hand through everything and he wasn't that type of person. Sure he could be there for her, listened if she had issues, but he wasn't kind, or gentle… at least not to everyone else. She was sparking something in him, it started that first day on the farm when he stumbled into the shed to ask her questions, and now look at him, cuddling up with one of the most beautiful woman under 25. He shut his eyes then, trying to not picture her in a bikini in one of those magazines. He was glad that she wasn't with them today when they ran into the prisoners; if they had seen her then they surly would have known her. He'd seen guys with pictures up of her on their walls when he had to spend time in jail before all this shit happened, he wouldn't have been able to control himself, and maybe he would have killed one of them if they looked at her just a little too long. His hand squeezed her shoulder a bit; she had stopped shivering, which was a good thing considering all of the shit that happened today._

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><p><strong>Please Review. :)<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7.**

It had been a few days and finally I was able to stand on my own two feet without getting the dizzy spells, no one really came into my cell because they weren't sure what to say to me, and I was okay with that. I knew what the reaction was going to be, and I was ready for this.

"Carol really I can do this on my own" I told her as her hand was still pressed to the small of my back, making sure I wasn't going to fall. I was walking slowly, getting my bearings.

"You sure?"

"I'll holler if I need assistance, go, and help Rick and the others outside" She nodded and patted my shoulder gently as I looked around outside of my cell and saw Carl up on the steps cleaning his gun, Lori was just coming out of the cell next to mine and she spotted me.

"Finally up? How are you feeling?" She asked and I swallowed hard and shrugged

"I won't be running a marathon anytime soon… how is he?" I asked, glancing towards the cell and she smiled gently

"Why don't you go in and see?" I nodded and walked around and leaned up against the bars, looking into the cell to see him lying on his side reading a book. He glanced over at me and smiled before bending the corner page and shutting the book closed.

"Well if it isn't miss angel herself, took you more time to recover than it did me I see" He smiled and swung his legs over the bunk and put his feet down on the floor. "Why don't you come on it, I ain't gonna bite" I smiled at his joke and he smiled back as I took a few steps into the cell and sat down on the fold out chair carefully. "I know why you didn't want anyone knowing, it's a tough pill to swallow these days." He took my hands and rubbed his fingers over my palms gently, his hands were warm compared to mine "I just wanted to say thank you"

"Hershel, you don't have to thank me, really I would do it for anyone of you"

"I know that" He said and smiled "You've become like a third daughter to me over the winter, just thank you" I smiled gently

"You're welcome" He nodded and patted the back of my hand.

"Now come on, I bet you want to stretch out those legs, I sure know I can" He stood up and I smiled and nodded, standing up as well as we walked out of his cell and I walked down the steps to outside carefully and pushed the gate open, breathing in the warm air. I ran my hands together and looked around, in the far distance Rick, Daryl, and Glenn were outside of the fences looking over an area, Maggie and Carol, and T-Dog were by the cars that had been pulled into the prison and Lori was just coming outside with Carl and Beth now. Taking in a deep breath, Beth looked me over and sighed deeply.

"Hey" She said and I smiled back at her "Thanks for saving my dad, I tried to come into your cell yesterday but Daryl was guarding it like…" I rolled my eyes and she laughed as I held onto her hand and squeezed it gently.

"I hope you can look at me the same way, I mean I'm not really that different"

"Except you can save us"

"There's that" I mumbled "But let's just hope no one gets bit again, because really it takes a lot out of me, as you could see" She nodded and squeezed my hand back before letting me go. "So what are they doing?" I asked Lori and she looked over at me and shrugged.

"Said something about making sure everything was safe, you know Rick, double, triple checking everything" I nodded at her words

"Can never be too safe… are those the prisoners?" I asked, pointing towards two men standing outside of one of the fences and she nodded.

"Yeah, don't know why there out here though" I nodded and pushed my hand into my pocket before Carl turned around and took a few steps back as I glanced back before Carl started shooting. I went to reach for my gun at the back of my jeans but Daryl had taken that from me yesterday, I pulled at the knife on my side.

"Try and get to the gate Lori" I yelled over at her as I heard Rick yelling in the distance for his wife. I swallowed the pain in my body still as I jogged and pushed myself as I pushed the blade of the knife into one walker's head and then pushed him away and then went to another.

"The gates open" I heard T-Dog yell as he dodged a few walkers as he ran to the open gate that was supposed to be locked shut. I jogged after him, killing 6 walkers in the process before I heard him screaming, a walker had her jaw wrapped around his shoulder, taking a clean bite of him and I cursed under my breath as he locked the gate still and I shoved the blade into the walker who bit him.

"C'mon we gotta get out of here, there's too many" I told him, taking his arm as we ran to the nearest door and he pulled it open as I slid inside and he shut it behind us. It took me a few moments until I could see straight inside of the darkness. "You have a few hours before that starts to affect you, here" I cut the lower half of my shirt off and wrapped it around his shoulder and under his arm pit. "That'll hopefully stop the bleeding some, we gotta find a way out of here and back to the cell block okay, are you okay?" I asked him, putting a hand to his sweating face and he nodded, looking bewildered.

"Yeah" He swallowed hard "I got the front, you cover me" I nodded "How's your legs doing, you can run right?"

"Just shut up T, I'm good" I smiled at him gently and he nodded before squeezing my arm gently and we started to jog down an empty hallway. The loud alarms caught me off guard, and I jumped and he looked back at me and shook his head.

"Fucking perfect right? You were probably better staying in your bed" I laughed sickly under my breath and nodded as we rounded a corner. "There's set of double doors up ahead that can lead us back to the cell block" He continued, staggering a bit now and I could see that he was bleeding more through the shirt. We didn't have hours, we had minutes.

"We have to stop" I told him and he shook his head, and kept on walking forward, putting a hand to his shoulder now. "I'm serious T, you're going to bleed out before you even turn, and we have to stop and find a safe spot" He turned and looked back at me and my eyes focused in on the walkers behind him. "Don't move" I whispered and he took in deep breaths but the walkers heard us anyways.

"We have to push forward, the double doors are just up ahead" He shouted as I took out one of the walkers, his gun didn't have any bullet left in it. I looked at the other two walkers and took in a deep breath.

"Go, get to them!" I shouted at him and ran past him and shoved my body into both of the struggling walkers. "GO!" I shouted as he staggered behind me and pushed out of the doors and I screamed in pain as one of the walkers clipped my forearm with his jagged teeth, pulling my skin into his mouth. "You son of a bitch" I cried and pushed the knife that was in my hand against his skull and into the others and stumbled back, pressing my hand against my wound as I ran out of the double doors to see him leaning up against a wall, sitting on his ass. "T we've gotta keep pushing until we find-"I looked at the doors as he looked at me.

"It's littered with walkers, I shoved that bar into the door handles, it'll keep them in there" I nodded and took in a deep breath and looked over at another door "You're bit" he said, taking my hand.

"I'll be okay, it's just a knick" I lied as I pulled my hand away, "C'mon, looks like a storage closet, we'll hide out in there until they come find us alright?" He nodded and stood up, holding onto his shoulder as I pulled the door open and he walked in and I shut it behind us, locking it. I pulled at the gauze wrapped around my wrist and wrapped half around my bite before holding the other half in my lap.

"If I turn you gotta do it" He mumbled, out of breath and I shook my head

"You ain't gonna turn" I whispered as I cut across the scabbing slice from just a few days prior "Y'all need to stop getting bit" I whispered, feeling the blood pooling around my wrist. "You're gonna gag, just keep it down alright" He nodded "Lay down" I whispered as he managed to lay down, head up as I moved my wrist over to his mouth "You can hold onto it" I told him as he held onto my arm as he pressed his lips to my wrist and let the blood into his mouth as I sat there next to him, my head on my knees as he lapped at the blood, only gagging a few times before I started to get woozy, and it didn't take long for that to happen. But I made sure to keep it to two minutes before pulling my wrist away to wrap it up.

"I've got it" He whispered as he took the gauze from my shaking fingers and wrapped it tightly around my bleeding wrist and I leaned back against the door. "Get some rest" He whispered, scooting up himself so I had more room in the small storage closet. My head lolled to the side wall as I passed out just as the alarms stopped.

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><p><strong>Please Review. <strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8.**

"T" I whispered, my eyes blinking open as I moved my neck and winced, it was so stiff from staying against the wall. "T" I whispered again, trying to clear my throat as I opened my eyes wider to look at an empty room before me. I fumbled for my knife but it wasn't on my belt anymore "Oh god" I mumbled in pain as I tried to push myself up, the door was unlocked, he had left, probably to find rescue.

I tried to push myself up to stand but I was in so much pain that I just fell back down onto my ass. I pushed my foot against the door but it only opened about an inch before it stopped, there was something blocking it. I pulled my foot in to my chest and took in a deep breath and then shoved my foot out again but it didn't budge much more. I didn't even know how long I had been passed out for, from the way my blood was caked along my bandages, it had to be at least a day. I took in another sharp breath before banging my foot against the door again, but my hope was quickly diminished when it slammed shut with force this time. I jumped and pulled myself back into the closet. I didn't have a weapon thanks to T-Dog and now with walkers out there I couldn't make a sound.

Soon enough I was falling back asleep, and I knew it was from the blood loss. When I came too again, the light was still shining in from under the doorway and I knew it wasn't long that I had been asleep, or had it? I tried to move again but bit back a cry of pain from how stiff everything was. I straightened out my leg and tapped my foot against the door again gently but it didn't budge, and I couldn't hear any noises from outside of it.

I was never going to get out of here that was my fate. T must have died out there trying to find his way out to the group, there was no way he was still looking around for safety.

I hit my foot against the door again and then I heard a dragging noise and pulled my foot away from the door just as it swung open hard and I blinked a few times trying to see the person there, knife raised, ready to attack me.

He instantly put his hands down and shoved the knife into his belt and walked into the small storage room slowly, sliding an arm under my legs and one under my back as he picked me up and I hissed in pain, pushing my face against the crook of his neck as he began walking.

It only felt like 5 minutes of him carrying me before we were in C block and he was putting me down on a mattress. I bit back a cry as my body was placed down at a different angle than the way it had been against the wall for so long. He knelt down beside me and tipped water against my parted lips and I drank from the cup desperately until I couldn't anymore and he pulled it back.

"Where's T?" I whispered hoarsely and looked up at him as he brushed the water from my chin with his fingers.

"He didn't make it" He muttered and I closed my eyes tight and shook my head. "Let me get Hershel, hold on" He said and stood up and was gone.

I opened my eyes when I heard voices.

"Oh sweetheart, Beth get the medicine bag" He told his daughter as he limped over and sat down on the side chair and pressed a hand to my forehead.

"Found her in a closet, dehydrated" Daryl told him and Hershel nodded as he looked over my bloodied arms and hands. He started to unravel one of the caked on bandages that had turned into a second skin and I whimpered out as it started to pull at the skin.

"She was bit" Hershel whispered "Beth find me some pain medication, this needs to be cleaned out and stitched up, she's lost too much blood already" Beth fumbled with the bottle and handed it to her dad.

"Isn't that- isn't she gonna turn?" Beth asked

"Looks a few days old, if she were, she would have already" Daryl whispered, leaning against the wall, wanting to kill the walker who bit her as he crossed his arms over his chest tightly.

"I…" I whispered out breathlessly

"Don't try and speak darlin', here I'm going to lift your head up, you've got to swallow these" I nodded gently "Beth would you?" She went to the side of Hershel and lifted my head up slowly as he popped two pills into my mouth and then tipped back some water and I swallowed them down hard as Beth let my head fall back onto the pillow gently.

"I saved him" I mumbled, I glanced over at Daryl "T, I saved him" I took in a deep breath.

"Shhh, don't fret over that right now" He unwrapped the bandage from the other wrist and sighed deeply "We've got to stitch this too; it's been cut too deep." Then something like a searing hot poker was being spread over my wrist and I cried out, fighting against the hand that was holding my wrist down.

"Couldn't wait until the pain killers took affect doc?" Daryl muttered in annoyance as he took Beth's place and put a hand over my mouth before I could scream out again.

"There isn't time, if you didn't find her she could have bled out by the night" I took in a shaky breath as the pain slowly stopped and a numbness spread over my body. Daryl took his hand away from my mouth as my eyes slowly drifted closed. "There, now she can get real rest as I finish this up" He lifted up my bit arm and looked it over and sighed as he poured the alcohol over the bite. Hershel's eyes falling on the scarred bite on my ribs, from my shirt being cut, it was all out for show now.

"When you found out, what was your reaction?" Hershel asked Daryl and he looked over at the old man as he wiped against the blood around the bite.

"Why?" Daryl muttered, absently brushing his fingers over my sweaty forehead.

"I didn't believe it when Rick told me after I woke up, not until I saw the scar on my leg… she confided in you on my farm, you took her in…" Hershel looked over at him, looking down at me "You tried protecting her."

"Tried" Daryl said, taking a deep breath "Look what good that did. People get bit 'round here left and fuckin' right and she's tryin' to save all y'all asses, does it look like I protected her."

"You did protect her" Hershel said honestly "She doesn't have to save us, but she did, and she still does. You heard her, she saved T-Dog but he chose to go back out to try and find help for her" Hershel started to stitch up the knife wound first and he placed a bandage over it and then he took my other arm and sighed deeply. There was no way he could stitch this up, he'd just have to wrap it, make sure it didn't get infected. He placed my arm back down after he wrapped it thoroughly and glanced back at the bite mark on my ribs and leaned back in his chair. "Those pain meds are only going to last a few hours, going to have to keep giving them to her until that bite scabs over, it's not going to be pretty for the next few days."

"Nothin's pretty these days" Daryl mumbled mostly to himself as his eyes scanned over my dirty face.

"How's she doing?" Hershel looked up at Rick and grabbed extra bandages that had been spread out by my side and started to put them away into his medical bag.

"She's out right now, but we're going to have to keep an eye on her bite, I don't know how to treat 'em, all I can do is give her medication" Rick looked over at Daryl who was sitting in the chair now, holding onto my hand.

"I got it" Daryl muttered "Just give me the damn pills, I'll give them to her."

"Daryl" Rick said and Daryl looked over at him "A word?" Daryl looked down at me again and stood up, walking out of my cell with Hershel trailing slowly behind.

"Why am I hearing a baby crying?" I whispered, my fingers curling into make a fist and I bit back the pain.

"Lori had her baby" Daryl said as I heard him fumbling with something, I turned my head against the pillow and looked at him.

"She did?" I asked and he nodded.

"She didn't make it" I closed my eyes at his words "Here, Hershel's got you on pain meds until he can figure somethin' with your bite" I shook my head and looked up at the top bunks bars above me.

"Don't need them" I mumbled as I moved my right leg around slowly, wiggling my toes in my boots and I let out a small breath "It's not too bad… Can you get Rick?" I whispered and he looked me over and nodded before standing up and leaving, a few moments later Rick came walking in.

"Hey you, how you feeling?" He asked as he crouched down next to the bed and I moved my arm over slowly, biting down on my tongue and finally got his attention and he took my hand gently as I rubbed my thumb over the back of his hand.

"I'm sorry" And he knew what I was talking about instantly making he swallowed hard, taking a moment as he looked down. His hand squeezed mine a little tighter as he leaned over my bed a bit more to get closer.

"It's not your fault, besides you've got enough on your plate right now." He put a hand to the side of my face softly "Get better alright?" I nodded as he brushed his thumb against my cheek and pulled his hand away. "Get some more rest, tomorrow we'll see if I can sneak you out of here for some sunshine, get those legs working" I smiled and nodded.

"Thank you" I told him and he nodded once before turning and leaving, patting Daryl on his shoulder before he walked back into the cell with me. "Okay you can give me those pills now" I cringed, not fighting back the pain now as it flared up full force in my arms.

"Thought you'd never ask" Daryl muttered sarcastically while he popped two out of the bottle and put them against my mouth and I opened my mouth and he tipped back water as I swallowed them, resting my head back against the pillow.

"Feels more like a curse" I whispered, keeping my eyes closed.

"What?" Daryl muttered

"The cure, saving people, it's a curse" My breathing evened out as the medicine took effect and I relaxed my limbs.

_**I looked over the outline of my sisters face, my fingers hesitant to touch her so I ghosted my fingers over her mouth to make sure she was still breathing and when I felt warm breath against my skin I took her shoulder and shook her a bit to wake up.**_

_**"Izzy, come on wake up we've gotta get out of here" I whispered close to her ear so that if someone was around they wouldn't hear me. Her groggy eyes started to open and she opened her mouth to say something but I pressed my finger to my lips and she nodded. I grabbed her arm and helped her sit up, picking out a leaf from her hair and sighed deeply.**_

_**"Where are we?" She rubbed at the soft spot behind her head where one of the men had hit her, her dark blue eyes looked around, looking for an escape in the dark.**_

_**"I don't know… I just woke up too" I moved my hand to hers and squeezed it tight in mine.**_

_**"They had dad" She paused as she looked at my once light blue long sleeve shirt, now soaked with dried blood making the cloth a muddy color "How did you survive that? Oh my god I thought…"**_

_**"I'm okay, I don't know what happened" She started to cry and I swallowed back my own concern to get out of this place and wrapped my arm around her shoulder as she instantly wrapped her arms around my back, holding me tight, her face pressed into my shoulder.**_

_**"I was so scared sissy" She mumbled and I nodded as I rubbed her back. **_

_**"I know, I'm sorry but we've got to get out of here Iz, we aren't safe here with them" She sniffled and pulled away from me, wiping her sleeves across her dirty face.**_

_**"Now ain't that the sweetest thing?" I stopped and turned quickly, pushing Isabelle behind me as she held onto my hand. **_

_**"Who are you?" I spoke louder now.**_

_**"Names Dave" He smirked as he stepped into the light from the window and I took a step back, Izzy holding my hand tighter after seeing the man's face. **_

_**"You're the one who killed my dad, what do you want with us?" I asked him, my jaw muscles tightening. He took more steps towards us until he had us backed against the wall, his gun raising as he pressed it to my chest gently, brushing away loose hair that fell from the ponytail it had been in. Then the gun lightly grazed against my breast and down to the fresh wound on my side and my eyes narrowed as I bit back the pain.**_

_**"You're quite special…" He leaned forward and I held my breath "But your sister, Tony thought she was pretty enough to come along." As soon as he stopped talking my sister was ripped from behind me and to the side, my hand tightened around hers while she screamed.**_

_** "LET HER GO!" I yelled as a large man had his arms around her stomach, trying to pull her from me. I held on with both hands now until Dave wrapped an arm around me, cursing loudly against my ear and then pressed his fingers into my wound, my fingers faltering as I lost my grip on Isabelle. **_

_**"I'll do anything, let her go, please!" I begged while Dave pressed his lips to my ear.**_

_**"Say good bye to your sister precious."**_

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><p><strong>Please Review. Bold <em>Italics are a dream-state or a memory.<em>  
><strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9.**

"Wake up, Aurora, you've got to wake up" My body shook as hands gripped my shoulders, shaking me until I woke up gasping for breath. I tried hitting the arms away from my body but my arms were so weak that they couldn't even reach the man's hands. "It's Rick, open your eyes, come on" I gasped again, my eyes opening up to see Rick's worried face above mine. "There you go deep breaths" He whispered, letting my shoulders go.

What had just happened?

"Rick" I breathed, almost instantly my eyes started to get blurry with hot tears and I pulled my hands up to cover my face.

"Hey" Rick whispered, placing a hand on my upper arm more gently now "It's alright you were just dreaming, it's okay" I shook my head, trying to move away from him but the pain that I was suddenly aware of in my back came into light now and I couldn't move from my spot.

"Go away" I mumbled behind my hands, trying again to kick away from him.

"You fell off the bed, let me at least help you" he whispered, bringing a hand up to mine and pulled it away from my face "Can I help you?" He asked and I looked up at him, and then nodded. He slid an arm under my shoulders and then the other under my knees and picked me up as careful as he could and put me back down on the bed.

"That's why my back hurts" I whispered, wiping against my face "How did I fall off the bed?"

"You were thrashing and yelling about something, s'not important to repeat" I nodded, understanding that my dream state wasn't just in my dream. "Other than your back, how are you feeling?" I twisted my wrists, loosening the kinks from both of them.

"I feel okay, it's not as painful as before" He brushed his palm against my forehead and nodded.

"Fever's gone down"

"How long was I asleep?" I asked

"Two days, Hershel said you were in and out but…" I nodded and turned my head to look at the empty seat and then back up at him.

"Where's Daryl? I'm surprised he even left, I couldn't shake him even for a minute the other day" Rick took a moment, looking back at the chair before he looked at me trying to choose his words carefully.

"Daryl isn't here, he left" my eyebrows rose up in confusion.

"What do you mean he left?" My voice coming out much sadder than I intended it to.

"It's a long story… why don't you get more-" I cut him off by taking his forearm.

"No, tell me now. Daryl can't just leave, what about…?" I was about to say me. What about me? That was so selfish.

He pulled over the chair and sat down instead of leaning on his knees on the cement floor and ran his hands over his face, it looked like he hadn't slept at all. His skin was paler, his eyes a bit puffy. Something had happened while I was in my pain medicated coma.

"This woman showed up outside of the fences, bleeding from a gunshot wound to her leg, we got her inside and she told us that someone took Glenn and Maggie. They went out for a run for the baby, formula, diapers… she was holding all of that in a basket" he explained.

"Who took Glenn and Maggie?" I tried to sit up but he put a hand on my shoulder to keep me there

"They're alright, we got 'em but it turns out Daryl's brother was with this other group, it's a town full of people, all sealed off by hand built walls with guards…"

"Merle was there" I whispered and he nodded

"How'd you know his name?"

"Daryl mentioned his name once or twice, so he left with him?" Rick's eyes fell on my face before they looked down at his hands.

"Gave him a choice, he went with his brother" my body somehow felt colder than it did before, and in my gut I felt like I was going to be sick.

"He's not coming back is he?" I asked

"Don't know… he told me to tell you that he was sorry"

"Sorry? He's sorry?" I sarcastically laughed under my breath while shaking my head "He can shove his apology straight up his ass, I don't care if it's his brother or not, from what I heard from people around here Merle wasn't anything but a junkie and a two faced asshole, I can't believe he just left with him, what does he not care about us anymore?" I asked him

"What would you do?" Rick asked me

"What?" I whispered

"If somehow you found your brother, what would you do? Because he told me you'd do the same"

"Noah wasn't a junkie, an asshole sometimes, but he was nothing like Merle"

"So you'd stay"

"You'd accept Noah" I told him honestly as I pushed myself up to sit, Rick didn't bother holding me down this time. I was sick of lying around and frankly sleep wasn't on my mind any longer. "You'd accept him because even though no one has said it, you need me" Rick's eyes flickered to mine as the silence grew longer.

"Why was he in Atlanta and you weren't?" Rick asked after leaning back in the chair and I turned my head a bit to not look at him. I realized that I didn't talk about my brother that often, I thought about him constantly but never did I speak about him.

"My dad was hard on him all of the time. You see, Noah wasn't my dad's kid, my mom slept around a lot and after she died when I was nine, we found out that there was a kid out there so we found him and took him in. He was my brother though, but my dad and him always clashed, I think he was taking out his frustration with my mom, out on Noah…"

I glanced around at the dark cell and sighed deeply "Him and my dad got into this huge fight the night before shit hit the fan, my dad told him to go stay with our grandparents because he couldn't stand to look at his face any longer… If it wasn't for that fight and him telling Noah to go to downtown Atlanta, my brother would probably be alive right now" I looked down as I moved my hands together "The last time I saw him, he was apologizing to me because he thought that he had ruined my trip."

My fingers played with the white gauze that was wrapped around my left wrist as Rick shifted his sitting position and said "You know it's not your fault."

"What do you mean?" I asked him, a bit confused because we had just been talking about my brother, and hell I know it wasn't my fault that my dad and Noah got into a fight that day.

"About your sister, you were having a nightmare before I woke you up right?" I looked down as I interlocked my fingers together.

"Wasn't a nightmare, just a memory"

"Well either way, it wasn't your fault that she's gone" I shook my head at his words and started to pick off the dried blood from my hands.

"I survived because of this cure, it's got me in more trouble than good" I brushed my hand over my face and then pushed it down against the mattress by my thigh and stood up slowly.

"You probably shouldn't do that" Rick mumbled as he stood up and took my elbow in his hand to hold me up as I grasped my bearings.

"I'm sick of lying around, it's probably almost dawn and I don't want to be no use to anybody, with Daryl gone I'm sure a lot has to be done" To be honest my body hurt like I had been hit by a train, but I didn't want to talk about my past anymore, there was nothing I could do about it, and it was a depressing story.

"It can wait"

"What if I told you I was hungry? Could I walk around then?" I asked him in whispers sarcastically and looked over at him as we slowly walked out of my cell, trying to stay quiet because everyone else was still sleeping. He took a moment to not shoot right back at me but he squeezed my elbow tighter as we continued to walk. "Where are you taking me?"

"We got actual food, prison had a full stash in the cafeteria" My stomach growled loudly and I put my free hand onto it quickly as he chuckled under his breath "Now you don't have to skip meals just 'cause you don't eat meat."

That was great news; I couldn't even remember the last time I ate… I think I had a handful of my cereal 2 mornings ago, that couldn't be good.

"So who is this woman who stumbled into the prison?" I asked him as we both sat up on the perch eating captain crunch.

"Names Michonne"

"Michonne? What kind of name is that?"

"I don't know" He shrugged and took another handful. I eyed him carefully; he was sitting back with his legs crossed at the ankles on the desk. It was the first time in a long time that I had seen him relaxed.

"You don't trust her?" I asked him and he looked over at me.

"Should I? Comes here with a gunshot wound and a samurai sword, not to mention when we went on the run to get Glenn and Maggie back she went missing for about a half hour, comes back with blood all over her face and limping" I swallowed hard and shook my head.

"Okay, yeah best not to trust her just yet" I sighed deeply and wiped my hands over my jeans before brushing them back through my hair. I must of looked like a crazy woman, hair in every which direction, blood and dirt all over myself. "The barrel of rain water still outside?" He nodded; I'd have to do that right when the sun came up because he sure as hell wouldn't let me out of his sight.

I dipped the plastic yellow cup into the barrel of water and put it down on the table before putting the rag into the cup and then started to scrub against my face again. My whole body had been cleaned off and I felt about 10 percent better now that I didn't look like the girl from the exorcist. Once I knew my face was cleaned off, I tied my hair back up into a tight bun and turned around, stopping when I spotted the woman out by one of the watch towers. She must of sensed someone looking at her and she turned her head and her eyes caught mine, I wasn't going to look away or back down from her stare but from the corner of my vision I saw someone moving outside of the fences and my full attention was on Rick as he stood there about 10 yards from outside fence.

Shaking it off, I walked up the steps and pushed the heavy door open as I continued to wash the wet cloth against my shoulder, not feeling 100 percent clean just yet, and I didn't think I ever would again.

"You're looking better, got some color" I nodded at Maggie and she smiled and offered the box of cereal she was pouring into a bowl and I shook my head.

"Already had some 'bout an hour ago, I'm going to go change… I'll be back" She nodded and sat down on the side stairs as I walked through gate into cell block C, or what people around here were calling it, home. I shuffled through my backpack and pulled out a clean enough pair of jeans with a small hole in the thigh and a newer tank top that I had found along our travels.

"Blue seems to be your color" I heard as I walked out of my cell minutes later from a man who I didn't seem to know. I quickly pulled the knife from my belt and he put his hands up and took a step back "I mean no harm, we haven't met yet" I narrowed my eyes at him as Glenn walked into the cell block and glanced over at me.

"He's alright, he was one of the prisoners" I nodded slowly at his words and pushed the knife into my brown leather belt, feeling the stitches pulling at the skin on my wrist as I shook my hand out by my thigh.

"I'm Aurora" I told him with a nod, not wanting to go particularly close to him because I didn't know why he was locked up here in the first place. He shuffled on his feet as I watched him curiously, putting a hand into his pocket.

"Names Axel, pleasure to meet you" He was smiling just a little bit and it made me feel uneasy and Glenn picked up on it as he walked by us.

"Mind helping me with something?" Glenn asked me as he motioned with his head towards me and I nodded.

"See you around" Axel told me as I walked away, nodding a few times as I kept my eyes on Glenn who gave Axel a side glance.

"Fucking hell he was like eye raping me, I thought all of the prisoners died" I mumbled towards him as we walked in while some of the group was eating breakfast.

"It's a long story, he's the only one left out of the 5 we found" I nodded and he put his hand down on my shoulder and it made me turn my head to look at him as he stopped. "How are you doing? I overheard Hershel telling Beth you wouldn't be up for a few days…" He looked down at my bandaged wrists; one needed a new bandage from the blood that had seeped through.

"It's just an annoying throb, and I got some food earlier, took somewhat of a bath…" I glanced past him at Hershel as he limped into the "breakfast room", his eyes falling on me as he shook his head. His face reminded me of the look my dad used to make when he was disappointed in me, and I never liked that feeling.

"What are you doing up? Went to check on you and you were gone" He said to me as he walked over, I looked down at his leg, I thought that was healed?

"What's wrong with your leg?" I asked him, deflecting the question.

"Just sore, now to answer my questions? What are you doing out of bed?" He took my hand and pulled my arm up to look over the bandage "This needs a new coat" I bit down on my bottom lip and nodded.

"I feel alright, s'not like I'm doing heavy lifting or anything, I needed a good wash down, and new clothes"

"How's the pain" He said as he let my hand go and put the back of his hand against my forehead and I rolled my eyes.

"The pain is tolerable, Glenn was practically just asking me the same thing, don't worry about me, I'm okay" He nodded at me unconvinced.

"If you're so okay, then why don't you grab my medical bag and bring it out here?" I nodded and swiftly walked away from him and picked up his bag and put it down, holy hell this was heavy. I crouched down and unzipped the bag, pulling out some alcohol peroxide, a roll of gauze, and those white bandages he used before zipping it back up and walking back to the breakfast room.

"I didn't think you needed the whole bag really, just the main stuff" I told him as I sat down in front of him and he gave me a look "Okay it was heavy." He nodded at my answer, but didn't say a word as he slowly started to unravel the gauze and then pulled the bandage off, my stomach flipped when I saw the bite on my forearm. "Oh lord" I muttered, turning my head away as he rested my hand against his thigh.

"You should try not to move this arm all too much, it's trying to scab over" I nodded and kept my eyes on the side wall to distract myself as he poured some of the peroxide onto the wound. He then placed the bandage over the wound securely before wrapping it tight with the white gauze, sticking the end piece underneath so it stayed in place. The other one wasn't too bad, but I did pull one of the stitches out and he wasn't too pleased about that.

When the door opened and thudded shut, I looked up and caught the eyes of Michonne again while she walked down the steps into the room. She had to be in the thirties, and she looked a little beat up to say the least. When more of the group started to file in from different places, I stood up and excused myself silently to go back outside to get some air.

"Rick?" I called out as I reached the fence; he was walking now and not just standing. "Rick" I said a bit louder and he looked over at me, catching his attention as he looked around and then back to me. "What are you looking for?"

"Nothing" He mumbled and I raised my eyebrows and nodded, my fingers sliding into the fence. He had been fine just over 2 hours ago, we were talking, relaxing in the perch waiting for the sun to come up and now he looked just as pale as when he walked into my cell to wake me up from my nightmares. I glanced around at the towers and sighed.

"Alright well I'm going to take watch up there, alright? You need anything just call out" He didn't acknowledge me again, just walking again. My fingers slipped from the fence as I pulled the gun from the back of my jeans and pulled the door open and put my hand against the dark wall as I walked up the steps, pulling the top door open and letting it shut behind me. If I could do anything around here without doing much heavy lifting, at least I could watch the horizon for this weirdo that had everyone on edge.

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	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10.**

About a half hour later I watched Carol up on the bridge with Axel, talking and setting up a makeshift barricade. Carol had a gun in her hand; it looked like she was showing him how to use it. How bad of a criminal could he had been if he didn't know how to use to damn gun? I shook my head and glanced back over at Rick again, what the hell had happened?

It was hours later, from the way the sun had lowered in the sky I could tell it had to be around 3. Carl had come up in the tower with me for about an hour, he had a sandwich saying that Beth made it for me so I had some energy. I was sure that if this didn't happen to the world, Beth would have become some type of doctor. She was always looking out for me, even though she was younger. I ate it slowly, making sure to savor it because I didn't know when the next time I would get something like this would be.

It was around 4 when I left the tower, seeing Michonne out by the overturned school bus. It was a good of a time as any to introduce myself, if she was going to be here and if she planned on staying for a while… maybe she could be an asset somehow down the road.

"I didn't introduce myself earlier" I spoke up as she turned to see who was walking her way "I'm Aurora"

"I know who you are" She said and I nodded slowly.

"Oh good so I didn't have to introduce myself, here I was thinking to myself should I come over and talk to you because what if she didn't know who I was…" I said sarcastically and it wasn't meant to make her laugh, but she did under her breath very little.

"Michonne" She said as she extended her hand and I placed my hand in hers and shook it gently before pulling it away and stuffing it back into my jeans pocket. "What happened to your wrists?" She asked after a moment and I shrugged.

"Had an accident, I'm a little clumsy and there is a lot of things to trip over, especially when you're running from walkers" She nodded and glanced around the yard as I leaned myself up against the side of the dark gray bus. "So uh, where are you from?" I asked her, trying to start an easy conversation.

"Everywhere" She stated vaguely and I rolled my eyes, looking away from her "You?"

"Everywhere" I told her, crossing my arms over my chest casually. I wasn't going to share if she wasn't, and from the way she looked it didn't look like there was a type of thing as an easy conversation with her. "I'm going back on watch, nice chat" I told her as she mumbled something under her breath while I walked back through the grass to the tower a few yards away.

The first shot rang out just as I got to the bottom door of the tower and I quickly pressed my back against the door, pulling my gun from the back of my jeans and pushing the safety off. I heard a scream and then more gunshots off in the distance to my back. Holy shit what the hell was happening?

Sliding my feet slowly to the corner of the towers base, I glanced around the yard, not seeing anyone and then I took a step from the tower and a gunshot flew past my side as I scrambled back in hiding. God dammit I was stuck. I pulled the door open and slid myself in and jogged up the steps as the gunfire stopped after just a few extra shots. I pressed myself against the closed door and looked out of the small window on the top at the yard to see someone in black clothing lying on his side on the pavement, Axel.

Then I heard Maggie voice and the gunshots started again. Taking in a deep breath, I pushed the door open and got down on my front, crawling on my forearms so I was the lowest to the floor as possible and spotted where the gunfire was coming from. How in the world did a guy get up in the tower across the yard?

Pushing my hands out, I got my eye level and shot his way and he turned his attention from Maggie, Beth, and Carl to me as I shot his way again just as he started shooting my way and the gunfire stopped. I adjusted my eyes and saw that he was down and focused my attention on who started all of this. There was another minute of gunfire Rick's way and then it stopped again to complete silence.

I crawled until I was at the other corner of the tower and saw a truck with a man holding an automatic weapon in one hand, which had to be the man that Rick had told me about. Before I could fire a shot his way a trailer truck speeding towards the locked entrance caught my attention. It turned the corner and then plowed right through the gates and into the yard a few yards from where I was. It turned in the grass and then parked, the gate to the back of it falling to the ground as walkers started to come out.

I started to aim and shoot, not worrying about if I got it in the head, as long as it was down for now. By the time I got 4 of them, my gun was empty and I pushed it into the back of my jeans again as I ran to the tower door and started to jog down the steps. Once I was outside, I saw Hershel down on the ground in the grass and he looked over at me and nodded. I grew impatient as the gunshots from the others continued to ring out and I looked to the side again to see that the truck was pulling away, that's when I started to run towards the walkers.

Pulling the long bladed knife from my belt, I started to push and pull the blade into walker's heads as quick as possible. Seeing that Michonne was doing the same with me once one of the walkers I had hit in the chest and was done on the ground grabbed my ankle, she pushed her samurai sword into its head and I nodded once at her and kept on doing my own work.

When I heard the sound of a car, I turned and was ready to get to the ground but the Silver showed in the sunlight telling me that it was Glenn coming back from his run. Seeing that Michonne was holding her own, I jogged towards a few stragglers headed towards Hershel and helped him stand as Glenn pulled the truck our way and helped us into the truck and I stuck my fingers into the side of my mouth and gave out a loud whistle as Michonne came running over and hopped into the back seat and I slid in next to her and shut the door.

Once we were safe on the other side of the locked fence, I got out of the car and went to the fence to search for Rick. "Does anyone see him?" Carl asked while he looked with me and I put my hand down on his shoulder and squeezed it gently. He looked up at me and sighed deeply.

"I saw him out there, he was ducking by that small walk bridge over the stream" He nodded and I slid my hand away from his shoulder. "Is everyone okay?" I asked and looked around at the group, some of them nodding. Carol caught my attention when she put her hand on my upper back.

"You're bleeding a lot, let's get you patched up" She said as I looked down to see that the white bandage that was just put on earlier was soaked with blood and it was dripping down my wrist and fingers and onto the pavement at my feet. I wasn't entirely sure if all of that was my blood, but from the feeling of tingles shooting through my fingers I wouldn't bet money on it. I pushed my knife into the side of my belt and walked with her back into the prison after she grabbed a rag and drenched it with rain water.

"… I put my family's life in your hands, so get your head clear and do something…" I had never heard Hershel raise his voice like that and frankly when he did, it startled me. Rick was slipping, and now I could see it. He didn't know which way was up, or which way was down. I swallowed hard as I glanced at Merle again before turning into my cell and sitting down on the edge of the mattress and readjusted the small bundle that had been sleeping against my shoulder until Hershel's outburst.

I laid her in my lap and put my fingers over her small tummy and tickled her as she squirmed around, making a little laughing noise. She looked so much like Lori, her eyes, and definitely her fair skin. "You're pretty good with her" I nodded and smiled as I brought her back up into my chest before standing up and handing her back to Beth.

"My cousin Alex had a baby, babysat a few times for her when I was a teenager" I brushed my clean thumb against Judith's cheek before pulling the hat down over her ear. Looking at Beth's face, she smiled and nodded.

"I know it's not like my duty or another… but whenever you want to take care of her I don't mind" I nodded.

"Maybe once these are healed" I motioned towards my wrists and she frowned a bit, nodding.

"How are you feeling? Daddy said you ripped your stitches killing those walkers" She started to rock Judith in her arms as I sat back down on the mattress.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal I just need to be more careful" I glanced behind her as Daryl came into view, stopping when he saw that Beth was in the cell with me.

"I'll uh come back later" He mumbled and started to walk away and I let out the breath that had seemed to get stuck in my wind pipe.

"No, its fine, I gotta put Judith down" She walked out of the cell, giving me the eyes to talk to him and I rolled my own back at her. He stood in the threshold, leaning his left side up against the wall as he looked me over while I glared at him.

"So how was your little vacation with your big brother?" I asked him and he sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"Look I know you're pissed" He started to say

"No I'm not pissed Daryl, I was livid when Rick told me, saying shit to him like I'd understand why you did it" I glared at him

"I ain't doin' this" He said and turned around and walked out from view and I sighed deeply. I took a moment to calm myself down before standing up and walking out of my cell.

"I'm sorry for getting-" I said as he walked up the steps "Daryl" I said his name but he didn't turn around.

"Looks like lovers lane is a bit bumpy" I heard from behind us and that caught Daryl's attention.

"Shut up Merle" He spat at him as I followed Daryl up the steps and to the perch tower. Before Daryl could go somewhere away from me, I grabbed his arm and pulled him in the small room and shut the door, turning my back away from the windows so I didn't need to look at Merle who was staring at us for his own amusement. I had been in the same cell block as him for less than a day and I already hated him more than anything. He was vile, and a disgusting human being.

"I'm sorry for blowing up down there… but you have to see where it's coming from… I was practically dead and when I woke up Rick told me you ran off with Merle"

"He's my brother, you of all fuckin' people should know 'bout that. I thought he was dead, wasn't gonna leave him" He told me as he leaned his back against the wall in front of me, chewing on his thumb nail. He did that when he was in an uncomfortable situation.

"I get it, I know why you did it, and I'd just like to know why you left me here" He looked at me now from his hooded eyes and raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"What?" He asked, pulling his hand away from his mouth and stuffing it into his front pocket. Now it was my time to feel uncomfortable as I shuffled on my feet and pushed myself up to sit on the desk behind me.

"I thought that you and I had some type of understanding, where you go I go, where I go, you go" He blinked a few times still not understanding me "God fucking dammit do I need to spell it out for you ya dumb hick?" I asked him and he sneered at my choice of words, I had only called him that a few times and it seemed to press a button inside of him he didn't like all too much.

"You thought we had somethin'" He said back at me "We ain't got nothin' going on blondie" I swallowed and brushed my hand back through my hair and held onto the end of it by my shoulder.

"So if I left, you'd be fine, is that what you're telling me?" I asked him as I stood up from the desk and wrapped my arms over my chest.

"You ain't leavin' sit back down" He said and I shook my head as he bumped the back of his head against the wall behind him in annoyance.

"Because I know when you decided to leave I wasn't fine, so I'm going to ask again… if I left right now and decided to go out and find my brother, would you be okay with that?" I kept my eyes on his face, his eyes were closed and then he opened them and looked at me.

"I'd go out there and help ya find him if you fuckin' needed to" his voice was low, probably trying to make sure his point had come across.

"Exactly my point Daryl, if you wanted to go and find Merle I would have gone with you but even after you found him, you just left and told Rick to tell me that you were sorry and that I'd understand, that's fucked up" He was about to say something but I took a step forward and he stopped and let me continue "I didn't need an apology I needed you sneaking in here in the middle of the night and grabbing me to take along with you two, I can hold my own Daryl, you know that and I wouldn't have been a nuisance. But what you did was weak, especially after you stayed with me for a few nights just to make sure I was alright" He paused, letting my words sink in before he opened his mouth.

"Don't matter if you were gonna be a fuckin' nuisance, Merle couldn't come back here after what he did"

"But yet he's here now…" I said "You're just making that an excuse, just stop" I pushed my hair back and went to the door but his hand shot out and shut it, his palm by the side of my head. I took in a deep breath and turned around to face him. His eyes were closed again, and he didn't move to take his hand away from the side of my head against the door.

"What Daryl?" I asked him, getting impatient because there was going to be a group meeting soon that we both needed to get to. "What do you want?" His other arm came up to lay his palm flat against the door beside my shoulder, making me trapped there, his feet had shuffled forward as well, bringing him closer to me without me knowing it. "Daryl" I whispered softer this time and he opened his eyes to look at me "What do you want?"

"You" He said lowly and I felt like my heart had stopped beating and then it kicked into overdrive making me lightheaded all of a sudden.

"Excuse me?" I asked him to make sure I heard him correctly, blinking a few times as I lifted a hand up to grip his forearm before my knees gave out from the thumping of my quick heartbeat in my ears.

"I fuckin' want you" He was breathing heavy, I could tell by the way his chest moved up and down quickly before I darted my eyes back to his face. He was staring at me like I was some sort of prey; hunger, and desire spreading over his dark ocean eyes as my grip on his arm tightened. Daryl Dixon wasn't an affectionate person, and he sure as hell didn't say things like 'I fuckin' want you' very often without meaning behind it so I was sort of at a loss for words. I parted my lips and before I could totally comprehend what was happening, his nose was pressed against the side of mine and our lips were centimeters from touching.

His breath was hot against my mouth as he moved one of his hands from the door and pressed it to my cheek before his fingers slid into my hair as did the rest of his hand to rest at the side of my head over my ear. My hand went up to his chest, my palm pressing against the soft gray cloth covering his skin. His eyes looked down and then flickered back to mine.

"What do you want" He nearly growled in a whisper against my lips and I couldn't hold it back anymore as my fingers curled into a fist, gripping the cloth between my fingers and pulling him into me. When his lips touched mine all bets were off, my other hand that had been gripping his forearm went to his ribs as the one against his chest moved up to the side of his neck. I needed to be closer to him, that's all I could think of as his teeth nipped my bottom lip. His hand that was against the wall by my shoulder went to my waist as the blue cloth of the tank top I was wearing was pushed up and I could feel how rough his fingers were.

The door at my back shook twice and then another before we heard Glenn say Daryl's name, which just made Daryl grip my skin at my waist tighter. "Open the damn door, Rick needs you" Glenn said behind the door.

"Busy" Daryl said angrily towards the door as my hand at his ribs moved over his stomach.

"Seriously" Glenn said and banged on the door twice more before Daryl pulled himself away from me reluctantly and took a step back and my hands fell to my sides as I tried to catch my breath.

"Fuckin' dammit" Daryl muttered as I kept my gaze on him, taking one final breath to control myself and took a step away from the door.

"Go" I whispered "I'll be there in a minute" He looked over at me and wiped his thumb against his bottom lip and nodded before unlocking the door and swinging it up.

"Said I was fuckin' busy" I heard him say before he shut the door so I could get myself together. I ran my fingers back through my messed up hair, pulling it down from the ponytail and shook my head.

Holy shit did that just happen? I looked at the closed door and bit down on my swollen bottom lip and let out a short laugh before standing up and walking to the door to meet up with the group.

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	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11.**

"What do you think you're doing?" I heard from Carol as I pulled the door to the Perch closed behind me.

"What?" I asked her confused, tossing the end of my ponytail from my shoulder onto my back before stuffing my right hand into my back pocket. She was leaning up against the railing, her thin arms crossed over her chest and she had a scowl on her face as she looked me over. "What?" I asked her again.

"Don't you think he's a little old for you?" She asked and I let out a small laugh under my breath before walking by her to go down the steps. I can't believe she was actually doing this. Maybe I guess I knew in the back of my head she wanted Daryl, I had even confronted him about it a few days before he had left. He said there was nothing going on, but judging from Carol's harsh words of jealousy… "I asked you a question" Carol said as she walked down the steps after me and grabbed my elbow and I yanked my arm away from her bony fingers.

"What? Were you just waiting there the whole time Carol?" I asked her as I turned around to face her "And to answer your question, no I don't think he's too old for me because I don't know if you've noticed but the world is kind of shit and I'm sure age doesn't mean anything these days" She just shook her head at my answer, her eyes narrowing a bit as her arms crossed over her chest again. "What is your problem? You've been practically ignoring me since we got here, this is about him? Because you like him? Because you knew him first?"

She opened her mouth to talk but nothing came out and she let out a frustrated sigh of displeasure "You're a child, he doesn't need a child in his life messing with his head, so back off" She walked by me, hitting her shoulder into mine and it made me stumble on my feet as I balanced myself out. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes as my fingers curled into my palms, trying to calm myself down before I did something to that woman.

"Hey you alright?" I heard Michonne and my eyes snapped open as she walked by me and I nodded before turning around and leaving the cell block to go outside.

Carol just had to ruin my mood; it was the first time in nearly a year that I felt somewhat happy and she just pulled the rug of reality from under my feet. Fuck her, I thought as I kicked at the locked gate and a few walkers started coming my way. I stared at them while taking my knife from my belt and just as two of them reached the other side of the fence; I pushed the blade into the first and then the other. They both fell onto each other as I looked at the 30 or so walkers walking around a yard that was once ours.

I took in a deep breath as I reached for the lock but a hand fell down onto my shoulder startling me. "Fuck, don't do that" I mumbled as I shoved the knife back into the side of my belt.

"Thought I should stop you before you did something stupid" Rick said as he pulled his hand from my shoulder and pressed it up against the fence, his fingers curling into the steel.

"Here to give me a lecture too?" I asked him, not bothering to glance over at him.

"Lecture? No, whose given' you lectures?" He asked while he looked over the yard, most likely counting them all.

"Doesn't matter" I whispered "You know I could clear out the yard, maybe help rebuild that fence."

"You're not going out there" He said as he pulled his hand away from the fence and stuffed it into his front pocket "Maybe in a few days we'll get a few people together, clear it out"

"So one of them can get bit or scratched and I'll have to come to the rescue again?" I asked him while turning my head to look up at him. "I can do it Rick, I'll be in and out, I'll be quiet" He shook his head and ran his other hand over his drawn face.

"Not today and not just you, what if one grabbed you?"

"Then I'd kill it, simple"

"Get bit? Bleed out? What then?"

"Someone can cover me from the tower" I pointed up "And someone can be at the gate holding it open for me to run in if it gets too hectic. I was looking at the gate, really all it needs is some wiring and we got that" He shook his head and started to walk away.

"DAD" We both heard Carl and we turned our attention to him and Maggie "Andrea" a whisper came out from Maggie and we both turned our attention back to the gate. Rick had told me that night we stayed up together that Andrea was with the other group, that's how Michonne found the prison. I squinted my eyes as I saw a walker on what looked like some sort of trap leash in front of the blonde woman.

"What is she doing?" I whispered mostly to myself

"Get ready" Rick said as I pulled my knife out from my belt and kept it there by my thigh. "ARE YOU ALONE?" Rick yelled over at Andrea as she continued to walk towards the gate we were in front of. He pushed out his hand and made me step back and to the side so I could pull the gate open as Daryl came jogging over and tossed Rick the keys to the lock.

I watched as he pulled the bag from her body and toss it to the side, I kept my body behind Daryl's… well I really didn't have a choice in the matter because every time I moved forward he would take a step in front of me. On the third time of doing it, I stopped and leaned up against the locked fence and shoved the knife into my belt again, she obviously wasn't much of a threat if she came by herself. Glancing around at the others, I noticed Michonne staring at her intently and I narrowed my eyes before looking back at Andrea as Rick made her stand up.

"You've all lost so much already…" Andrea pleaded with Rick once we were in our makeshift breakfast room inside of the prison, but Rick wasn't hearing any of what she was spilling. From where I stood it looked like Andrea was a little too in deep with this Phillip guy, she had no idea what he had did to us, there was no coming back from killing Axel, no redemption in coming with guns blazing.

I quietly watched Michonne walk outside the door near me, Andrea followed soon after. I wasn't even going to touch that drama; it was easy to tell a lot had happened between the two when they were alone on the road together over the winter. Turning my head, Daryl's eyes were on me but it wasn't just his eyes that were on me, so were Carol's beady ones. "Fuck" I groaned and moved past both; I had my own new drama to avoid.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I looked over the man lying down on his back, arm under his head, the other half arm against his stomach and dirty tank top. "I need your help" I told him lowly, taking another step into the room and he turned his head and looked me over before turning his head back to look up at the dark ceiling.

"So ya got the hots for my baby brother, need to know what kinda panties he likes?" He asked and I rolled my eyes, not wanting to provoke him.

"No actually, did you want to stretch your legs maybe? Later tonight?" I asked him and that got his attention as he swung his legs over the table he was lying on and looked up at me.

"Thought ya would never ask sweetheart"

"Not like that" I narrowed my eyes at his grin, his eyes looking over me suggestively "I want to clear the yard that your precious Governor destroyed"

"And what does your precious Rick think 'bout that?" He asked me, and I sighed deeply as I ran my hand back through my hair.

"Doesn't matter, I can take care of myself"

"Your bandages suggest otherwise"

"Believe me, I can handle it… plus I wouldn't mind letting off some steam" He smirked again and I shook my head "So what do you say?"

"I'd rather not get…"

"I'll take the responsibility if Rick flips alright? So you're in good graces"

"Why didn't you ask Daryl?" He asked me as he stood up, adjusting the metal weapon on his arm. That was interesting.

"If you haven't noticed, he's a little protective, it's not a bad thing but…" He nodded and looked me over again

"Got keys?" I nodded

"I can get them, after everyone falls asleep I'll come get you" He sat back down on the edge of the table, scratching the back of his neck and I turned around and left.

"What were you doing with Merle?" Maggie asked while I walked back through the cell block to get to my cell.

"Just had to ask him a question, Andrea gone?" She nodded and looked off in the distance "What?"

"It's nothing, you doing okay?" Her eyes came back into focus on my arms and I shrugged but nodded.

"It's not painful really anymore, obviously Rick's not going to let me do any of the heavy lifting anytime soon but I'm okay… are you okay? I know that Glenn's been acting a little off, actually a lot off" She looked around us before taking a step forward.

"Mind talking in private, I really could talk to someone about what's been going on" My eyes widened a bit as I nodded, it had to be pretty fucking serious if we had to go somewhere other than the cell block.

Everyone except for a select few were outside but that didn't matter, we set up against the building yards away from the others. She didn't say anything at first, not until I reached my hand out and touched her arm; I could feel her muscles tense under my fingertips. "Did he touch you?" I asked her almost instantly, I couldn't keep those words from tumbling out of my mouth.

"What?" She asked, turning her attention to me while I took my hand off of her arm "Why did you ask that?"

"Because I…" I swallowed hard "Look, I know I haven't been much of an open person since you guys took me in…"

"I know it's because of what happened with those guys, Glenn mentioned to me one night a few months back that you ran from your group, so it couldn't have been good"

I shook my head at her words "No it wasn't good at all, and I wasn't a part of the group, my sister and I were pretty much there prisoners" her eyes widened as I said the word.

"Prisoners?" I nodded slowly, my jaw setting tight so I could swallow the pain of those memories. "Does anyone else know?"

"Rick does, Glenn, your dad, but Daryl knows the whole story because he beat it out of Randall back on the farm… my sister, my dad and I had set up a small camp, we were heading south east, my dad suggested Florida and maybe find a boat but that obviously never happened…"

"You know you don't have to tell me" She whispered as she heard the hesitation in my voice.

"I think I need to Mags, I've been getting more nightmares because I've been keeping the true story all to myself and I know all about you, it's not very fair that you don't know how I got to be this way..." When she nodded at me, her eyes flickering to my bandages arms that's when I continued "So we set up a camp, we had been walking for about 3 days straight and my sister was dead on her feet. We had some food, water… I shouldn't had left them alone but my dad told me that he was all set starting the fire, so I went to the pond and cleaned myself up… when I got back my dad was tied up, bleeding from the mouth, and my sister was… some guy was on her, she was screaming bloody murder and I couldn't do anything because some guy had grabbed me before I could help" I looked to the side at the fence and walkers, my eyes narrowing a bit "I thought that I didn't need to be scared of humans, that we were all in this together trying to win against the walkers but I was wrong, I had been too trustworthy until that night… they made my dad watch the whole thing and then they killed him when he begged for it to stop… we stayed until he turned"

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was that… deep"

"No one really does, I just had to tell you because when I touched you just now you tensed just a bit… it was something that I still do when people touch me" She was quiet, but I got my answer. "What did he do?" I whispered.

"Nothing as bad as what happened to you… he barely even touched me, it was mostly for show, to terrify me and Glenn"

"So he didn't…?" She quickly shook her head and I nodded, at least she wouldn't have to share the same nightmares as me. "Then why is Glenn acting so… in charge?"

"He thinks he could have stopped it, he thinks it's his fault, but I'm okay"

"You two are the strongest couple I know, if you think that you two are going to split up because of this, I'll bet that you won't. Glenn may act like an ass for the next few weeks but eventually he'll break that"

"How can you think that? Because you're the most positive person I know and yet, knowing now what I know what happened to you, how can you not be negative about everything?"

"Because that gets nothing done, believe me… when I was held as a prisoner, I only thought the worse all of the time for months. I thought they killed my sister, I thought that they were going to just keep abusing me, but I just stopped one day and surprisingly that was the day I got out" Her eyes looked down from my face as she nodded "You'll be okay Maggie, the both of you will."

"Thanks" She whispered as I scooted closer and hugged her shoulders gently and she wrapped an arm around my back, squeezing me back. "Thanks for telling me your story"

"Don't worry about it, now go get your man back" She chuckled under her breath as she stood up from the table and took my advice, going to find Glenn.

I took a deep breath before standing up once Daryl came out from the prison to talk to Rick; we had to talk about what had happened earlier. If only Carol's words weren't constantly playing like a bad record in my head as I walked towards them, I wasn't a child, Daryl didn't need to look out for me, I could look out for myself. I let my presence be known when I cleared my throat, Rick looking over at me first.

"What's going on?" I asked, looking out at the yard.

"Seeing who should take watch tonight, Merle suggested he do it but that ain't gonna happen"

"I'll take watch then, I've gotten enough sleep to last me a week, and it's only for a few hours anyways, until the suns up"

"I don't think that's a good idea" Rick said "Glenn and Maggie should take watch"

"They took watch last night, and the night before, plus their going through some issues right now… I think they need the night off and I'm volunteering"

"Fine" Rick sighed, looking from me to the yard.

"No" Daryl spoke up "I'll do it"

"Too late, ya snooze ya lose" I told him, mentally kicking myself because that sounded so childish, the one thing that I was trying to prove that I wasn't. Rick looked at both of us and shook his head just a bit, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Take watch up there" He pointed to the barricaded fence and I nodded while he unclipped the keys from his waist and handed them to me. "What's going on between you two? Do I want to know?" Daryl shook his head, and I smirked.

"There's nothing going on, Daryl is just over protective, aren't you?" He narrowed his eyes at me as I turned and walked away, hearing Rick ask him straight forward what was going on, I didn't hear the answer but I'm sure I wouldn't have liked it.

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	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12.**

"C'mon, everyone's asleep" I whispered as I touched my finger against Merle's sleeping shoulder. He looked up at me in the dark and smirked.

"Wasn't a dream after all"

"Oh shut up, I'm doing you a favor by letting you out for a while"

"No I'm doing you a favor sweetheart"

"Just… Shhh" I whispered as we walked out of the cell block and I made sure to lock it before we made our way outside.

"Ah fresh air" Merle mumbled as he ran his hands over his face "Now how do you expect to do all this on ya own?"

"I just can"

"Can't even fuckin' see, your goin on a suicide mission aren't ya?"

"No. Believe me, once all of them are dead, they'll be thanking me" I unlocked the fence's gate and took out the keys, making it a point to give him a look "I'm trusting you right now, alright? Because Daryl sees some sort of redeeming qualities in you that no one else sees, so please don't fuck with me" He took the keys from my hand and nodded sweetly at me. I took the knife from my waist and the other from the band under my pant leg before walking out of the gate, and he closed it but didn't lock it behind me, just in case.

"Holler if ya need me" He said as I took a few steps, making sure that the gravel and dirt weren't going to be much of a noise. Squinting my eyes, I looked out at the yard, they were everywhere, but I could be quick. I had made sure to tie my hair back in a high ponytail so if one did grab at me, they wouldn't be anywhere near my hair. I pulled the top of the bandana from my neck to around my nose and mouth just so I didn't need to breath in their decomposing corpses. I could totally do this.

The first was a breeze, and so were about 20 of them until one fell against the pavement and it created a thud noise, making some nearby turn to go in that direction. I crouched down and walked, pressing my body to the tower's wall. It was much darker out here, the only light coming from the moon and sometimes that would even disappear because of the clouds. Once the light reappeared, I moved again and took out a group of 4 relatively close to me. Sneaking up on the rest were easy and as I looked around the still yard I wiped the blades against a walkers ratty t shirt he was wearing before pushing them both back into place.

"How in the hell is there not a single fuckin scratch on ya? You invisible or somethin'?" Merle asked once he let me back in through the gate and I locked it with my bloodied hands.

"Totally" I mumbled

"How'd ya do it? Couldn't see ya"

"It's dark, and they're attracted to noise more than movement, sneaking up on most was pretty easy"

"Look at ya" He said as he took a step back and gave me a once over and grinned "Certified killer right here, they'd love ya over in Woodbury"

"That's nice" I whispered "I'm sure they would considering the governor is a psycho"

"He ain't all the bad" I narrowed my eyes at him once he said that, was he defending this guy who shot up our camp?

"What was that?"

"I mean he's bad, he's a fuckin' asshole but he's fuckin' smart" I couldn't disagree with that, considering I watched that truck come in full of walkers. "Rick gonna be mad you did this?"

"Probably" I whispered as I looked out at the yard "But I don't care." He didn't say anything after that and I was grateful, because frankly I was sick of hearing him talk broken English.

He left about an hour to sunrise, and it gave me good time to think about what I was going to say to Daryl. Should I tell him that I wanted more from him, or that we should just keep it friendly, no feelings attached? Hell I couldn't do that now and he probably knew that too. God dammit, why do I have these stupid feelings? I should just become cold and hard, be that 'certified killer' like Merle called me. I could do that, just be set on one thing, surviving and not caring about anyone but myself. But that thought got put to rest quickly when I heard Judith crying in the prison. It must have been close to dawn, which was usually the time she started to get cranky.

I watched a tired Glenn walk out from the side door, yawning and scratching the side of his messy hair and I couldn't help but smile a bit. I was way too tied in with them, even if I did leave them, I'd miss them like crazy until the point I might have to off myself just to get a peace of mind. "Here to relieve you, quiet?" He asked as he looked out at the yard, rubbing at his left eye. "Uh…" He mumbled "the hell?"

"It was super quiet, I'm sure we'll have an even quieter day" I stood up from the ground and yawned myself, maybe a nap before Rick started screaming at me. That sounded like a good idea.

"You do this all by yourself?"

"What do you think?" I asked him and he looked down at my hands, which were clean now from the quick rain storm we had during the night. "Have a good morning Glenn" I smiled at him and walked in through the doors.

"How was it last night?" Rick asked me as I walked through the gate into our Cell block.

"Quiet, didn't see anything suspicious" He nodded as he rocked Judith in his arms and then he stopped, his eyes looking at me a little harder.

"Where'd you get that?" He asked, pointing to my shoulder and I looked down at the scrape, one of the walkers from last night swung at me, it was little and harmless.

"Does it matter? I'm okay"

"I told you not to"

"I did it anyways and you knew I was going to or you wouldn't have had me on watch last night" He took in a deep breath and shook his head.

"You're not gonna be on watch anymore, not if you're gonna go out and do something that could have killed you" His stern, father voice coming out to scold me.

"Rick I'm okay, honest, it was all done in less than 15 minutes" He walked away from me then and I rolled my eyes. That stick up his ass needed to come out sooner or later, I was hoping it would pop out today.

"What were you two arguin' about?" The southern drawl caught my attention as I was trying to take off my jeans from the other side of the sheet that was put up on my cell.

"Doesn't matter" I told him as I tossed the jeans to the side and grabbed a newer pair, the sheet started to move "Give me a minute, I'm changing" I told him and pulled the jeans up to my waist and zipped them "Okay" I mumbled, flipping the button into the sliced hole of the jeans, watching as he pulled the sheet to the side and slid into my cell. My stomach did a flip and I shook my head gently at the feelings that were bubbling up to the surface.

"You gonna tell me or…?"

"I'm guessing you haven't gone outside yet?" He shook his head "Great" I whispered "I killed all of the walkers in the yard on my watch last night, there, now go ahead yell at me like Rick did" He paused for a second, looking me over, his eyes falling on the scrape against my shoulder before his blue eyes looked at my face.

"You look fine"

I raised my eyebrows and put a hand to my hip "What?"

"I ain't gonna yell at you. Was it fuckin' stupid? Yeah but whatever nothing I can do 'bout it" I was not expecting that. At all. I looked at him for a few seconds before turning towards the old pair of jeans and started to fold them, placing them off to the side to be washed at a later time.

"So uh, what's going on?" I asked him moments later once he leaned his body against the wall, looking at me as I fumbled with a pair of shorts.

"Carol actin' strange to ya?" He asked and I nearly burst out laughing but I covered my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Why would you ask me that?"

"Startin' to think you were right, 'bout before…" He rubbed the side of his neck and walked to my bed and sat down on the edge of it.

"Oh are you? Did she do something to make you think that way?"

"Gave me a takin' to, said to stop foolin' around, you say somethin' to her?" He asked as I rolled my eyes, tossing the pair of shorts to the side as I sat down next to him.

"She was outside the perch yesterday morning after I came out, told me that you didn't need a child in your life to look after" He laughed at that, shaking his head "Believe me, jealousy is something I expected from her but she can be a bitch when she wants to be."

"S'good thing that you ain't a child" He said and my stomach dropped, no, those feelings needed to stop.

"I think we should talk about this…"

"'bout what?"

"Us, whatever… this is" I motioned with my finger between us. He was quiet now and I glanced over at him, he was staring at the wall in front of us. "I mean, we can push it under the rug, say it was a spur of the moment thing"

"Nah, I don't want that" I took in a deep breath "But I ain't good in…"

"Believe me I get it, but I did remember that you said you wanted me, which started all of this, so I just wanted to know where we stand now because I don't want a relationship like Maggie and Glenn, I'm nothing like Maggie and you're nothing like Glenn"

"Damn right" Daryl said and I smirked from the corner of my lips "Ya wouldn't mind keepin' it to ourselves?" He asked and I shook my head instantly.

"I don't want everyone knowing, Carol knowing was plenty, I don't want people looking at me any differently because we're together" He nodded "It's bad enough some look at me like a way out from all of this mess…" His hand landed on my thigh and I held my breath, looking down at it as his fingers squeezed it gently.

"Nothin's gonna happen to ya, not when you got me" I couldn't help but smile wide at his words, my cheeks flushing red. His hand started to slip away from my thigh but I pressed my own hand against the back of his to keep it there.

"You know that was very sweet" I told him in a whisper and he turned his head and looked at me.

"I can be sweet" I laughed under my breath "Ya think that's funny?" I nodded at him and he grinned while his hand on my thigh moved to wrap around my lower back, his hand pressing into my waist as he tugged me into his side.

"Trying to prove me wrong Dixon?" I asked him lowly as his other hand came up to the side of my neck to bring my face closer to his.

"Shut up" He mumbled as his nose brushed against mine and my eyes fluttered closed when his lips pressed to mine softly. Oh he was trying and he was showing me up. My hand moved onto his upper thigh and my other held onto his wrist that was up by the side of my head. My lips pressed slightly harder to his, not wanting him to be so gentle with me anymore and he took the hint as his hand on my waist tugged my body until I threw my leg over his lap so that I was straddling him on the edge of the mattress.

He pulled his lips away from the side of my neck a few moments later when he heard footsteps pass by the cell, all I could hear was my heart beat thudding in my ears so I gave a small whine when he stopped. Amusement shown on his face when he turned his head back to look at me.

"Should we slow down?" I whispered, my hands moved from the back of his neck to slowly slide down his chest as I straddled him. He let out a small grunt of displeasure at the idea of slowing down which made me grin.

"I ain't gettin' caught with my fuckin' pants down"

"Your pants aren't even down yet" I whispered against his ear lowly. I pulled away and placed my hands on his shoulders, looking over his face. He didn't look so into it now, he looked distant. "What's going on?" I whispered.

"Rick's goin' on a run, left me in charge…" I nodded at his words. He had to look after the prison, playtime could come later. I started to pull myself off of his lap but his arm snaked around my lower back to pull me flush against him again. "Now wait a damn minute, we still got a few minutes." I couldn't help but let out a deep sigh as his lips pressed to the shell of my ear and I closed my eyes, god this man could move a fucking mountain with those lips.

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